Reinforced Magic
by Lupine Horror
Summary: She was supposed to die, she was supposed to be destroyed, she was supposed to be completely annihilated, but she wasn't. He wasn't the happiest, nor was he the luckiest, but now a guardian angel all of his own had found her way to him. Let's see what Hogwarts makes of these two. This is fan fiction, I only own the plot.
1. Two New Begginings

AN: Wow, I can't believe that I managed to type this up in just two hours. Anyway, I had an idea about a new story while I was typing up Fate's Gamble (My main story) and this just wouldn't leave me alone. So, I hope it is well received and all of that stuff, I'm sure you've heard it all before. Oh, I will say that Fate's Gamble is my priority story and this is my secondary one, so don't expect me to update this story with any regularity. That's not to say that I won't update it often, because I will, just don't try and hold me to any kind of schedule. Also, unlike Fate's Gamble, I'll be aiming for four to six thousand words a chapter, not the ten thousand ones my other story has.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 1 – Two New Beginnings

"This is goodbye."

With a smile on her face and her eyes closed, Reinforce was fully prepared to be completely annihilated, to die, if she was truly a living being. The last thing she had seen, the last thing she had ever expected to see, was Hayate's tear-filled face as she begged her not to go, but it was not to be.

The damage to the tome had been far too serious, far more than they had initially believed there was. The protection program had stopped, but the basic structure had still remained. If left for too long, she would have automatically created a new protection program, loosing control all over again.

It was impossible to restore the previous protection program, the one before the corruption, the Tome of the Night Sky had been permanently erased from Reinforce's programming and memory. Without knowing the original form of the program, restoring it was an effort in futility.

So, because of all that, Reinforce had chosen to be destroyed, rather than risk encroaching on Hayate ever again. She had met with the knights, Nanoha Takamachi and Fate Testarossa Harlaown on the surface of the planet. All of them together had been gathered for the sole purpose of destroying her utterly.

She had not expected Hayate, her master, to make her way out to her, but she had. Initially in her wheelchair, and then falling out and crawling towards Reinforce, Hayate had begged her not to go, promised to take care of the tome, but Reinforce knew that it was useless, she needed to be destroyed to keep Hayate safe!

So she had been destroyed. She had felt herself fading, her programming coming apart, piece by piece she began to be destroyed, becoming nothing more than a memory. She felt as the protection program, something that was deeply rooted in her, be destroyed and knew that her master was now truly free.

However, something unexpected occurred. Just as she was about to be completely destroyed, she felt a tugging sensation. She vanished, but she was not destroyed. Her memories were complete, and her programming was mostly intact, even if there were bits and pieces of it missing.

As she was being pulled to wherever she was going, she felt parts of herself regenerate. Thankfully, the protection program that had caused all of that havoc in Uminari City, and so many other places before, was not one of those parts that regenerated.

She came to a stop in mid-air. In her surprise, Reinforce flailed around before she impacted the ground on all fours and groaned slightly in pain. She looked up and locked eyes with a small child, maybe even a little younger than Hayate was, but this one was male and didn't have Asiatic features.

Reinforce looked the child over, noting that it was a boy with green eyes and black hair. His clothes were ill-fitting and looked to be hand-me-downs, if not outright charity clothing. He looked more than a little malnourished and unhealthy, but there was one thing in particular that drew her attention, the melted and disfigured half of his face.

xxxxx

Harry Potter had not been having a good day. He was ten years old, even if he did look more like nine or maybe eight. He had intense green eyes and shaggy inky black hair that looked an absolute mess no matter what he tried to make it lay flat. His skin was also rather pale, a testament to having slept in a cupboard under the stairs for nine years.

He lived with his aunt and uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, because his parents were dead. He had been told that his parents had been killed in a drunk driving incident, one that was their own fault, but Harry doubted that was the truth. His aunt and uncle didn't seem to like his mother and father, and that meant they didn't like their offspring either, meaning himself.

Dudley Dursley, Petunia and Vernon's son, who was therefore Harry's cousin, was an unpleasant person. In general, he had taken after his father. Both Vernon and Dudley Dursley were large, the difference being that one could equate Vernon to a whale and Dudley to a hippopotamus. From Petunia, he had inherited his blonde hair that seemed to have been slapped on top of his head rather than having it actually grow there.

That morning, as was usual at Number Four Privet Drive, Harry had been awakened very early in the morning by his aunt Petunia. He had then gotten out of his cupboard under the stairs, where he slept, and proceeded to start cooking breakfast for the family.

Breakfast in the Dursley household consisted of a lot of bacon, eggs, sausage and toast. Well, that was true for two of them at least, Vernon and Dudley. Petunia tended to prefer muesli or something different. Harry, well, he got whatever scraps were left afterwards, and a slice of dry toast if he was lucky.

He had then washed the dishes and prepared to go to school. There were other jobs that he did around the house, the hoovering, dusting, mopping the laminate flooring, cleaning the bathroom, emptying the bins, cutting the grass, watering the flowers, all sorts of other things too, but he would do them when he had come home from school.

At school, they had found that for their third period of the day, the one before lunch, they would have a supply teacher. The reason they would have a supply teacher was because their regular one's child was in hospital and about to undergo surgery. Mr. White was going to be at the hospital for when his daughter got out of the operation room, to be there in person.

The first lesson of the day had been English, but because of how distracted the teacher was, they were told to just read a book or something. Harry ended up reading a book called 'The Hobbit' by J.R.R. Tolkien. The book was a bit beyond what Harry really should have been reading at that age, but he liked it.

One of the things he liked about it was that it had magic and fantasy and things like that in it. The Dursleys didn't like to hear the word 'magic' for some reason, they tended to get very angry when the word was even mentioned. Harry was a bit suspicious of this, maybe magic people had done something wrong to Petunia and Vernon or something, maybe they'd had bad experiences with magic before or something.

Whether magic existed or not, Harry would keep an open mind about such things, there had to be a reason that his aunt and uncle reacted as violently as they did to the mention of it. Maybe Harry was magical! Maybe there was some magical relative of his that would swoop in and rescue him from the Dursleys!

Yeah, right. Harry might only be ten years old, but he was... a little bit cynical. Having someone just swoop in and save him was just a tad too convenient for his tastes, there would have to be a reason for them to be there, a reason for them not to have come before, reasons why he had been left with the Dursleys in the first place.

Anyway, after the first period of reading, second period was for maths. Harry was good at maths, it was something he was proud of, but he wasn't allowed to let people know he was good at maths. The Dursleys didn't like it if he did better than Dudley, so that just meant that Harry _had_ to be even better to make himself look worse.

If you didn't know the answer to a question and guessed it, there was a chance you could be right. If you did know the answer and deliberately got it wrong, well, that was something completely different. Harry fell into the latter of those two categories, being capable of figuring out the answer, but purposefully getting it wrong so Dudley always got higher marks than he did.

The class bid goodbye to Mr. White after second period, and he left the school while the class went outside for morning break. Almost everyone in the school went into their groups of friends and played together doing something, the exception was Harry.

Harry didn't have friends, no one wanted to associate with him. Down Privet Drive and the streets around there, the Dursleys had spread rumours about Harry, how he was a delinquent child, how he was always causing trouble, how he was a thief, how everything that went wrong thereabouts could be traced back to him.

That meant that parents warned their children against making friends with him, keeping their offspring away from bad influences. That was only one reason that Harry didn't have any friends though. Another reason for Harry's lack of friends was Dudley and his gang.

Dudley, as any child tends to do, used his own parents as an example. The example he had been given was that Harry was a freak and freaks deserve to be punished for their freakishness, What that freakishness might be, Dudley didn't know, but that wouldn't stop him from punishing Harry for it, as well as anyone who wanted to get close to him.

The result of Dudley's bullying was that anyone who showed even a slight interest in Harry was... forcibly discouraged by Dudley and the other thuggish children that had gathered around him. Even then, when Harry didn't have any friends, they had a game called 'Harry Hunting' where they chased him and beat him up if they ever caught him.

Not that they ever really caught him though, he was too fast for that. Thanks to them chasing him like they did, Harry was remarkably fit for someone his age, especially when one took into account what little food he ate. He almost always managed to escape Dudley's attention, keeping as far away from him as he could.

The bell went later, signalling third period, and all of the kids went back indoors. When the got to their classroom, they found their supply teacher there. It turned out to be a woman, Mrs. Davies, who was rather out of breath. It turned out that Mrs. Davies usually taught at secondary schools and had rushed there from where she had been.

When the class found out she specialised in chemistry, and it was supposed to be a science lesson then, they had all pretty much begged her for a chemistry lesson that would be interesting. Mrs. Davies was a nice woman, and she soon caved into their request.

It just so happened that she had some acids and alkalis with her, having accidentally brought them along in her rush, and she put on a bit of a demonstration for the class. It was quite interesting to see, watching her mix two clear chemicals to make a coloured one, seeing a reaction between an acid and an alkali in a test tube and many other things.

In all of the excitement, no one really noticed Dudley stealing a random bottle from Mrs. Davies bag and tucking it into his pocket.

xxxxx

At lunchtime, Harry sat outside with his back against the school wall. He didn't have a lunch with him, but that was normal, so he was sitting by himself and trying to read more of that book that he'd been reading in first period. It was really interesting and Harry wondered what it would be like to live in a world of elves, dwarves, hobbits, wizards and dragons.

He was so caught up in the book that he didn't immediately notice when Dudley and his gang managed to creep up on him. The first thing he knew of what was happening was when Dudley's second in command, Piers Polkiss, and another useless lump, Malcolm Gordon, grabbed both his arms, making him drop the book on the floor.

Harry struggled against them, but he knew it was useless. As fast as he was, and he was pretty bloody fast, they had a grip on him and both were much stronger than he was. He looked around, seeing Dudley and the other two members of his gang, Frank Marks and David Brooks, there as well.

"Well, well, well, what are you doing, freak?" Dudley asked with a rather impressive sneer on his face.

Harry didn't answer, knowing that saying anything at all would have probably just made things worse. He simply relaxed and looked at Dudley, fighting would only get him even more injured than normal and even normal hurt like all hell. He saw something in Dudley's hand and his eyes went wide as he recognised it as one of Mrs. Davies' bottles of chemicals.

"You see this?" Dudley asked, waving the bottle around. "This made interesting things happen in class, I wonder what it would do to you?" Dudley grinned, making a face that Harry could not help but compare to a pig, those pigs really had it tough.

"There's an interesting display up near Miss Bells room, you know." Dudley said, making Harry blink in confusion. Miss Bell liked religion and regularly changed the display outside her room to showcase different religions. Two months ago it had been the Greek gods, last month had been Hinduism and this month was the Norse gods.

"There's one that looks really freaky, do you think we could make you look like her?" Her? Wait, did they mean Hel, the Norse queen of the dead? Granted, the display of her looked really creepy, having half of her flesh withered and decayed, but what did he mean by...

Harry realised what Dudley was saying and began to struggle as best he could. It was useless though, Piers and Malcolm were just too strong for him. Dudley pulled the top off of the chemical bottle and upended it over Harry's head, letting the acid cover the left side of Harry's face and run down underneath his collar.

Harry shrieked in pain, writhing as he felt his skin burn and sizzle underneath the chemical onslaught. He had closed his eyes which saved him from becoming blind, but it burned, by heck did it burn! His cries of pain made Malcolm and Piers let go of him and back off, and it seemed to sufficiently creep them out that Dudley and his gang fled.

Harry was in an out of the way part of the playground, around a corner and out of sight of the main school building, so no one saw him writhing and rolling around in pain, nor did they really notice Dudley and his gang legging it away from there, so Harry was left pretty much all by himself.

The pain eventually stopped and Harry found that, despite feeling weaker than he did before, he was still alive and not dying or anything. He looked around for something and noticed a shard of glass that was sitting on top of a bin. He went towards it and found that it seemed to be a broken part of a girl's compact mirror or something similar.

He tilted it so he could get a good look at his face and found that, yes, he really did resemble that display of Hel now. The entire left side of his face looked melted, burned, ugly and was completely disfigured. His eyelid could barely open, and reaching up he tried to peel it back by hand.

It worked, but it was also incredibly painful at the same time. Not knowing what to do, Harry returned to where he had been before, picked up the book he'd dropped and slumped against the wall. He was startled when there was a flash of light in front and above him.

A woman fell out of the sky and landed on all fours right in front of him. She groaned a bit in pain, nothing serious, and Harry took the opportunity to look her over. The woman looked to be in her late teens, maybe twenty at the most. She had long silver hair and her clothes were a bit odd.

She wore black shoes and had socks of two different lengths. The sock on her left leg was a pretty regular length, going just part way up her shin. The sock on her right leg was longer though, reaching to above her knee. She wore a mini dress kind of thing, with a skirt that started a few inches above where her longer sock stopped and had no sleeves. There was a design of a yellow cross in thin lines diagonally across the top half of her dress, a yellow line going around her waist and joining up the bottom points of the cross. She wore fingerless gloves that looked to be reinforced with metal across the knuckles and she had a... dog collar around her neck?

When she looked up, Harry looked right into her crimson red eyes as they observed each other silently. Harry noted that The silver haired and red eyed woman seemed to be observing him just as much, if not more, than he had been in regards to her. Her eyes soon settled on the disfigured half of his face, the most noticeable thing about him now, much more eye-catching than his lightning bolt scar was.

xxxxx

"Hello." Harry said, a little cautiously. "Who are you?" He asked.

Reinforce considered the question for a moment. She had not intended for the name Reinforce to stick to herself, having much preferred it if Hayate would bestow that name onto the one who would become the next vessel of the tome, as there would most definitely be a need for one in the future. Still, it was a name she had been given, and she would not scorn Hayate now.

"My name is Reinforce, what's yours?" She asked back.

"Harry Potter. Why did you fall out of the sky, miss Reinforce?" Harry replied.

"I did not mean to fall out of the sky." Reinforce told him, shaking her head. "I meant to die. I was carrying a... disease that was infecting my friend, and I could only get rid of it and protect her by dying and taking it with me. It seems the disease is gone now though, but what am I to do?" Reinforce asked, mostly of herself.

"You were trying to die so you could protect someone?" Harry asked, getting a nod from Reinforce in reply.

"So that means you're one of the good guys, right?" Reinforce blinked at this. "You were trying to sacrifice yourself to save others, isn't that what the sort of thing that good guys do?"

Reinforce sighed, before taking a seat next to Harry, leaning against the wall like he was. "Not really." She replied, not sure how much of what she was about to say would be understood. "Being a good guy is about trying to make sure that no one has to sacrifice themselves, that everyone is safe and good, but a good guy will also make the tough choices when they turn up, the ones that others are too scared or cannot take. And no, I was one of the bad guys very recently."

"What did you do?" Harry asked her.

Reinforce shifted a little uncomfortably. "I went out of control. My master was being eaten by me, and I was a threat to the safety of this planet. I was only stopped because my master gave me a heart and two people she knew teamed up with her to destroy the corruption I had caused to exist."

"Then it's not your fault and you're not a bad guy." Harry said, surprising Reinforce. "If you weren't in control then there was nothing you could have done, so that means you're not to blame, right?"

Reinforce gave a small smile. "Maybe you're right. Still, that doesn't answer what I should do now."

"You're alone now?" Harry asked, getting a nod from Reinforce. "Then you're like me then." Reinforce gave him a curious look and Harry shrugged his shoulders. "My parents are dead, my aunt and uncle say it was a car accident, I don't think I believe them."

Harry took a breath and continued, not sure why he was confiding in this strange woman that had fallen from the sky. "I live with them now, my aunt Petunia, my uncle Vernon, and my cousin Dudley. They don't like me, but they won't tell me why." Reinforce frowned at that, but didn't say anything.

"I sleep in the cupboard under the stairs and, even though I'm just ten, I know that's not normal. Dudley has two bedrooms you know, one for his bed and everything he likes and another for all the toys he's broken, doesn't want or doesn't like. The other kids at school talk about stuff their parents do for them, the breakfasts and suppers they make, and none of them have to cook either." Harry said, beginning to get a little bit gloomy.

"Dudley did this to me." Harry indicated his face. "But I know Petunia and Vernon won't punish him, it'll turn out to be my fault somehow, I just know it. A few teachers noticed something wasn't right with me before and they tried to have something done about it, they weren't there when I went back to school on Monday, it was said that they'd got jobs elsewhere."

Reinforce lightly, hesitantly because she'd never done it before, put one arm over Harry and hugged him. Now, with her hand and arm over him, she could feel just how thin Harry was, feel his ribs against her flesh through his clothes. Once more, she wondered what she should do, and she thought she might have an answer.

She had said her goodbyes to Hayate and, even _if_ she could somehow go back, it would probably open wounds that were just about to close, with a bit of healing and help perhaps, but maybe she could look out for a different child, this one. Of course, she would need a way to hide, but she had an idea.

"Miss Reinforce, does magic exist?" Harry asked suddenly, making Reinforce jump a little.

"Yes, Harry, it does. And please, just call me Reinforce." She told him, before she cast a small Photon Lancer directly into the air above them. That spell had been one she had absorbed from Fate Testarossa Harlaown, one that she had seemingly retained. Collect and use was a rare skill, one that it seemed she'd kept, even after her 'destruction'.

Harry's eyes had went wide at the small display of magic and Reinforce smiled lightly at his awe at such a basic spell. "C-Can I do magic too?" He asked her and Reinforce looked at him carefully. She reached forwards and Harry's eyes went really wide when her hand sank into his chest and an orb of light came out.

"Yes, you can. Your linker core looks... really strange, but it's still a linker core." Reinforce paused for a moment. "Harry, do you trust me enough to try something?" She asked, wondering if her crazy idea would work or whether it would simply fail.

Harry eyed her carefully, but he eventually nodded his head. Reinforce released Harry's linker core and let it settle back into his chest as she took a breath. "Unison In." She muttered and Harry was shocked yet again when she started to enter his body.

He didn't panic though, he had said he would trust Reinforce, so trust her he would. Once she was done, doing whatever she was doing, Harry felt a slight itching at his temple, where his lightning bolt scar was. He ignored it for now, looking at his reflection in that compact mirror he'd looked in before.

To his surprise, his hair was now the same silver colour Reinforce's had been, and his eyes were the same red colour. He touched his own body to find that, yes, it was still him, but he had changed. Apart from the change in colour, his hair _had_ also gotten longer, about waist-length it seemed.

Reinforce then went to try something else, not separating from Harry, but not being such a major part of him at the same time. She thought of it as sort of going into a 'standby' mode as it were. The results kind of worked, but there was also evidence that Reinforce was still there.

His hair remained waist-length, and it was now straight, but there was a single streak of silver in it. Harry's right eye was back to being green, but his left eye was still the same red as Reinforce's was. However, before either of them could really think about these changes, something strange happened.

The lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead which had been itching a little stronger and a little stronger as Reinforce maintained the unison, suddenly burst. Black gunk leaked out of the scar and an unearthly scream sounded forth. Harry's magic, not yet stable due to his young age, began to react in an unpredictable way.

Reinforce would have widened her eyes in surprise if she'd been in a body of her own at the time and hastily went about trying to shore up Harry's linker core as best she could. There was also a sort of gap left behind when his scar had cracked open and she filled that as well.

The result of these actions were several-fold. First, Harry's nature became 'tainted' by Reinforce's and he permanently took on some of her 'essence'. So, even if they separated, Harry's left eye would always be red and there would always be that streak of silver in his hair.

Another thing that changed was Harry's magical core. Now, instead of being almost completely alien to Reinforce, it began to take on a structure similar enough to a linker core she recognised, but still remaining different in some regards. She didn't know why it had changed, or what effect those changes would have, but she decided to keep a close eye on it from now on.

A third result from the scar bursting was an incredible headache that assaulted Harry, causing him to pass out. Of course, having the most perfect of timing, it was only then that a teacher took notice of what was going on around that corner and came to look.

They would find Harry face down on the ground, passed out, half his face melted, his hair longer with a streak of sliver in it, a book on the ground next to him and the sharp and unpleasant smell of strong acid in the air. It was only when they got Harry to a hospital and he opened his eyes that the miss-matched red and green would be noticed.


	2. A Little Time Passes

Wow, I got this done sooner than I thought I would. I am currently drowning in ideas for this story and therefore Chapter two is already here. Now, to answer some questions. Yes, I have read sakurademonalchemist's drabble that had the chemistry incident and, no, I didn't copy it. I was surprised to read it, considering chapter one had been sitting on my hard drive for half an hour or so before said chapter popped up and I did PM the author in question with my observations. As for Harry looking 'feminine', that was a little unintentional. I, myself, am male and I have fairly long hair. I like it that way, and I guess that I was subconsciously projecting onto my characters that I am writing. As for him looking like Hel, you'll find a few references to Norse and Egyptian mythology popping up throughout this story, that was just the first of them.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 2 – A Little Time Passes

"Bloody Dagger."

Around Harry, three small red daggers appeared, before they flew off and impaled the tree he'd been aiming at. He flopped down onto the ground with a tired smile. He had finally managed to create three daggers from his own magic alone, something that he'd been trying to do for several weeks now.

Harry felt a hand on his right shoulder and he looked up into the gently smiling face of Reinforce. Of course, only the right side of Harry's face was visible, he was using his now longer hair as a curtain to cover his disfigured left side, the part of him that he really didn't want anyone to see.

The hospital had not been able to do much for Harry, so he would have to wear his injuries forever more. Also, seeing as there was no evidence other than Harry's word, Dudley had not been punished for what had happened to Harry. That didn't mean that nothing had happened at all though, because there _had_ been several changes in Harry's life.

Now, because the Dursleys had 'concerned adults' looking out for Harry, he now slept in Dudley's second bedroom. This was a nice change, it was larger than his cupboard had been, and Reinforce could separate from him and teach him things when he had spare time.

Also, because the hospital had sent a list of dietary requirements to the Dursleys, and the school nurse was keeping an eye on him, he was also eating properly now, even if they did give him as little as they could get away with. It was nice, and Harry had decided that his favourite food was rice, it was just so versatile and it was a staple food as well.

At school, the teachers were now keeping an eye on Harry and Dudley both, so the bullying had gone down a fair bit as well. Oh, it hadn't disappeared entirely, that would be asking too much, but now Dudley and his gang could only get him outside of school hours.

Of course, Harry didn't exactly hang around much if he could avoid it. He went everywhere, looking for isolated and hidden places that he could just be with Reinforce, the only person he really trusted, the only one he could really call a friend.

Reinforce had taken to teaching Harry everything she could, which turned out to be an awful lot. It turned out that her Collect and Use Rare Skill was more inclusive than merely stealing people's spells, she also retained the memories and knowledge of everyone who had ever been absorbed by the book.

Languages, mathematics, physics, magic, everything. She taught Harry everything that he asked for. A lot of stuff was far beyond his current capabilities but, while not a prodigy, he picked things up quite quickly. As it so happened, the magic that Reinforce knew, Mid-Childan and Ancient Belkan style, both required quite a bit of knowledge about maths and physics.

One thing that Reinforce and Harry had in common was a desire to fly. When Reinforce had shown Harry her flight spell, her black wings emerging from her back, Harry had pretty much begged her to teach him how to do that himself. As it turned out, flying was not going to be something she could teach him for a while.

You see, the physics of flight were quite complex, and Harry just didn't understand all of the forces involved at present. There were the vertical forces involved, gravity, air resistance and so on, as well as horizontal ones, the wind for example, as well as thrust and so many other forces that it was quite ridiculous.

A stable flight spell required at least three 'nodes' as it were. One node would allow someone to move up and down, left and right, forwards and backwards, but all of the forces would be concentrated in one area. In that case, the person who was flying would likely be flipped end over end and be quite dizzy.

Using two nodes, turning would also be possible, but it still only allowed for balance on a flat plane which mid-air wasn't. Three nodes in a triangle formation was the bare minimum, but more would help make everything more stable and controlled, but also more complicated.

For now, Reinforce had Harry doing exercises that would allow him to focus his mind, while also making him capable of defending himself in an emergency. As shown by his use of three bloody daggers, he could probably hold off one or two ordinary people, but any more would give him problems, as would going up against a mage of any kind.

Harry could currently cast a weak Panzerschild, three Bloody Daggers, a Bind Break and a half dozen Photon Lancer shots. Still, that was actually pretty impressive, especially as he didn't have a device. Oh, she herself was a Unison Device, but that was only useful when you wanted to pour massive amounts of power into something. For control, you really needed something like a Storage Device or an Intelligent Device.

Reinforce frowned a little as she contemplated what she had been learning about Harry's linker core. To be honest, it only partially resembled any kind of linker core that she was familiar with, there was a more raw, wild and primal part to it that didn't really make sense.

Magic, to the best of Reinforce's knowledge, was just like a science. You could calculate things, attach numbers to it, heck, you could even channel it with technology! Harry's core, however, seemed to respond to emotions as well as what variables Reinforce already knew about.

When he was experiencing a strong emotion, whether that be joy, anger or something else, his spells tended to be more powerful, if a little unpredictable. When he was gloomy, downcast or just plain sad, his magic tended to be a little lacklustre as well.

Reinforce had set him to meditating in his free time, to try to learn to feel and control his linker core. She, when he did that, examined a few things that she personally found interesting. One of those interesting things was the force-field around Privet Drive that she'd found.

From what she'd been able to tell about the force-field, it was tied into Harry himself and was sustaining itself off of his magic. The only reason that she hadn't destroyed it yet, and this stop it leeching off of Harry, was because she only had the most vague of ideas about what it did.

It seemed, from what she had gleaned in her examinations of it over the past few months, to connect Harry with one other particular individual. Who this other person the force-field was connected to, she didn't know, but she could tell that the force-field would react aggressively towards that person.

Reinforce sighed and sat down beside Harry. He had taken out the small lunch he had been given and began to eat it. It was Dudley's birthday today, he was being taken to the zoo, and Harry had had a boxed lunch shoved into his hands and been told to not come back until the Dursleys had returned home themselves.

Harry, of course, had used just such an opportunity to practise what magic he had learned from Reinforce. Harry used every spare moment he had practising what Reinforce taught him. These days, he completed the chores he had been given as quickly as he could and disappeared to practise some more.

The Dursleys weren't complaining about this, the chores got down and they got Harry 'out from under their feet and away from mischief' as it had been said. There was this small clearing in some trees in a park near the Dursleys that Harry often used for the small magic spells he knew.

For larger spells or those that needed more space, like when he was practising his control of his Photon Lancer shots, he went to an abandoned skate park that no one ever went to for them. There were no skaters there, as there were broken bottles and things all over the place, so it was somewhere quiet for Harry to practise alone.

When he was out of the house, and Reinforce had deemed it a bad idea to practise for one reason or another, Harry spent his time at the local library. Since the acid incident with Dudley, Harry had begun to really get interested in various mythologies, primarily the Norse and Egyptian ones.

Reinforce well remembered when Harry had first returned home after the hospital visit. Half of his face, most of his upper body and his left arm had been bandaged, where acid had either eaten away at him or dribbled down his body and caused more damage. She had hugged him as comfortingly as she knew how, but because of how tender he was that had only caused him pain and he had cried more.

Reinforce then leant over, pushed Harry's hair aside and planted a small kiss on his forehead, half on his normal skin and half on his corpse like flesh. She was the only person that Harry would let do that, anyone else would have gotten a very bad reaction from said boy.

Harry didn't say anything at her random action, merely looking up at her in surprise, before going back to his food. Another change in Harry was how little he now spoke. Reinforce was sometimes an exception, but Harry had become extremely introverted and wary of other people, never initiating conversation if he could help it.

Reinforce was slightly reminded of Fate Testarossa Harlaown, the red-eyed blond girl that she had absorbed back in Uminari City. Reinforce had absorbed the girl's memories, along with her repertoire of spells, when she had been going berserk, so she knew things that Fate probably wasn't comfortable with other people knowing.

The both of them had grown up in less than ideal circumstances, both of them having abusive relatives and, now, both of them had one person they could rely on. When Fate had been younger, that person had been Arf, her familiar. For Harry, that had been Reinforce herself.

When Harry was older, maybe fourteen or fifteen, Reinforce might consider permanently getting him out and away from the Dursleys. As things were, he was simply too young, and he could only just look after himself. Yes, when he was older, the two of them would scram out of here.

xxxxx

CRASH!

Reinforce winced as she saw Harry catapult up into the air and slam back into the ground with a great deal of force. Harry had tried a flight spell for the first time, but he wasn't able to utilise more than one 'node' at present and had been disorientated when he'd started spinning and flipping in the air, leading him to smash into the ground.

"Are you okay, Harry?" Reinforce asked hesitantly as said boy shakily got to his feet.

Harry nodded his head as he rubbed his now bleeding temple. It was probably a good thing that Harry no longer required glasses, his vision having recovered over time after his first unison with Reinforce. Reinforce herself didn't know why his eyesight would heal like that, but it had, maybe it had something to do with that lightning bolt scar that had disappeared after that time?

"As long as you're sure." Reinforce said. "How about we take a break from magic, let's see how well you remember the German that I've taught you." Harry looked up and Reinforce smiled at the eager gleam in his one visible eye.

Since Harry wanted to be shot of the Dursleys just as much as she wanted him to be rid of them, he'd thrown himself into studying everything he could that might be useful to him. He believed that, to be successful and to become his own person, he needed to apply himself and reach his maximum potential.

That work ethic really helped when he was learning something brand new, and Reinforce had decided that languages would always be useful. She was teaching him Japanese, the language that Hayate had spoke, as well as German, which was weirdly identical to Belkan for some reason.

Two things that Reinforce couldn't help him with, as she didn't know them herself, were Norse runes and Egyptian hieroglyphics. She learnt them alongside Harry as he studied them in the library and online on the computers that were available for them to use.

Reinforce lamented the fact that Earth was so behind the technology that she was useful, and England seemed to be not as advanced as Japan was too. From what she had read though, that was understandable. After World War Two, Japan had not been able to rebuild its army, and had instead invested its money elsewhere.

That meant that Japan tended to have the best technology available while the rest of the world tried to play catch up. Really, denying Japan an army and saying that they would defend it if it ever came under attach had possibly been the worst decision made at the end of the war.

Reinforce stopped questioning Harry on what German he knew when she saw his focus wasn't on her. She followed his gaze and was curious why a common garden snake had snatched Harry's attention as completely as it had.

She was incredibly surprised when Harry hissed at the snake. Not the childish hissing that kids would do when playing a game that involved a snake, but actual hissing. The snake reacted to it as well, focusing quite intently on Harry when it heard him.

Reinforce watched as Harry and the snake hissed at each other for several minutes, trying to understand what the two might be saying to each other. Snake body language wasn't something that Reinforce knew, so she only really had Harry's reactions to go off.

It looked like quite and intense discussion from what she could see, one that went on for several minutes. She settled down to watch, deciding not to interrupt and only ask Harry what had been said when the two of them had finished their little chat.

Eventually, the snake slithered off and Harry's attention returned to Reinforce. Seeing her curious look, Harry blushed, having realised that he'd pretty much just been ignoring his one and only friend to chat with a snake. He looked at her again and saw the small smile on her face, indicating she wasn't mad at all.

"What was all of that about, Harry? I didn't know you could talk to snakes." Reinforce asked, her tone light and without any hint of demand in it.

"I didn't either." Harry replied quietly, his voice hoarse and rasping due to lack of use. The fact that his throat also had some damage from the acid incident probably didn't help matters much either. "It was... interesting. He called me a 'speaker'. That implies there is more than one, or at least that there had been 'speakers' before."

Reinforce nodded her head. "Maybe it's a Rare Skill. You know that I have Collect and Use as my Rare Skill, perhaps Snake Speech is yours. Do you know how far it reaches, maybe you can talk to dragons and things as well." Reinforce closed her eyes in thought for a moment. "Maybe having such a skill could help you with learning a summoning skill."

Harry looked at her curiously, his head tilted slightly to one side. "The most recent summon spell I used was Summon Scarlet Dragon. If my memory serves, that particular spell is AA rank in power, but only requires E rank control. With your ability to communicate with snakes, you may be able to talk to them and get them to agree to assist you, rather than having to force them into obedience like others would."

"I see. Reinforce, could you teach me summoning and control magic?" Harry asked after a moment.

Reinforce shook her head. "Unless you're naturally skilled at it, summoning magic is a bit too complicated to try without a device. If we could get you one, it would open up all sorts of spells and skills that I could teach you. For now, though, we can only stick to what you can do without a device."

Harry nodded his head before another question occurred to him. "Reinforce, because a device is essentially a weapon, wouldn't it be illegal for me to possess one? I mean, I'm not military or police or anything like that after all, and Earth is an unadministrated world."

Reinforce smiled. "While it is true that I've only given examples of combat type devices, the primary use of _any_ device is to augment their master's magical abilities and assist them in casting spells. They take over tasks that the human brain can't handle efficiently, such as recording and reproducing spells that the mage casts."

Reinforce sat up and gave Harry an impromptu lesson the different devices that existed. "Storage Devices have the lowest artificial intelligence of any device, but they also have some of the fastest processing speeds as well. This is the kind of device that would suit you the best, if you needed intelligence then you could use me."

"After that, there are Boost Devices. These are a bit weird, because their primary function is to give other devices a power boost. They are also often used in conjunction with summoning magic, boosting the stats and abilities of the creatures a mage summons." Reinforce explained.

"Armed Devices are the ones that I'm more familiar with. They are combat-oriented, most often linked and associated with Belkan magic and the cartridge system. They have a more sophisticated AI than Storage Devices, but they aren't up to the level of Intelligent Devices." Harry nodded his head in understanding.

"Intelligent Devices themselves, are the second most intelligent ones around, as you may have guessed from their name. These devices are capable of acting independently of the mages they are synchronised with, casting shields when their mage is distracted or unconscious for example. They also possess their own personalities, making them rather sought after amongst the more powerful mages." Again, Harry nodded to show his understanding and gave Reinforce a significant look which made her smile.

"Finally, of the main devices, are those like myself, Unison Devices. Now, Unison Devices aren't usually the same size as me, being more likely to be around the size you would expect a 'fairy' to be, sometimes as large as a young child. Our AIs are so advanced that we are treated like fully self-aware and sentient individuals. As you know, we are capable of 'uniting' with suitable individuals to provide mana control and assistance depending on the circumstances." So saying, Reinforce unisoned with Harry, making his hair turn fully silver, his right eye turn red and he also seemed to gain a little height as well, but that might just be their imagination.

Reinforce cancelled the unison and smiled at Harry. "If we ever do end up somewhere that you can purchase a device, I would suggest you do so. There is nothing illegal about owning one, but the owners of Intelligent Devices must be registered with the TSAB. Do you have any further questions?"

The two of them continued to talk, discussing everything that both of them wished to. Before Harry went home, Reinforce returned to her place inside Harry's body and their conversation turned from a verbal one to a telepathic one. Reinforce would never say this, but Harry's mental voice was so much better than his real one, probably because his mental voice wasn't affected by how rarely he spoke, nor his damaged throat.

When they returned to Number Four Privet Drive, they found that Dudley was being a nuisance, banging his Smeltings stick on everything he could reach. The young, round boy had been accepted to the same school that Vernon had attended and the uniform, for whatever reason, had included said stick.

Dudley tried to whack Harry with his stick, but that didn't work. Harry cast a single Bloody Dagger into his hand and stopped Dudley's Smeltings stick with the flat of the blade, keeping the blade partially hidden in his sleeve, before dodging around his cousin and disappearing upstairs and into his room. It had happened so fast that Dudley had seen nothing but a flash of red and was left stupefied, not really understanding what had just happened.

The room that had been Dudley's second bedroom looked a lot different now. Before, it had been full of all of Dudley's broken and unwanted toys, things that he no longer touched and would have gathered dust if Petunia allowed such a thing to exist in her house.

Harry had fixed all of the broken things he could, thrown out everything that couldn't be fixed, and kept what things interested him. The books, which looked like Dudley had never even touched them, were some of Harry's prized possessions.

The walls had been painted as well, the carpet was a deep purplish black and the walls had symbols of all kinds painted on them by Harry. There were Norse runes, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Japanese kanji, all kinds of things there. The personalisation of the room was something that Petunia and Vernon hadn't cared about, staying out of the room and not caring as long as he did his chores.

Sometimes, he almost felt invisible at Privet Drive, but he didn't mind it much. Harry didn't care about what Petunia, Vernon and Dudley thought about him, he didn't even think of them as family. No, Harry cared solely about what Reinforce, the one person who showed she cared about him, thought.

He'd listened to her stories, about Ancient Belka and everything she'd ever experienced. He had paid a lot of attention when she talked about Nanoha Takamachi, Fate Testarossa and Hayate Yagami, who were all the same age as him, and Harry wondered if he would ever get to meet them.

Reinforce had once gotten a personal teleport for him and her to work and had shown him an uninhabited planet where she'd let loose with some of the more powerful magic she was capable of. Of course, without a device, Harry wouldn't be able to pull off the same things, but he had been in awe of her tremendous power.

When he was older, Harry wondered if he would ever be able to join the TSAB. Of course, Harry was wary of any organisation, saying nothing of one that recruited ten year old children, so he would check things out before he joined if he ever got the opportunity, but the whole idea behind them appealed to him.

xxxxx

It was one day, a few weeks into the summer holidays, when something arrived for Harry. He'd been up early, like he always was, and had made breakfast for the family, still surprised that he got some himself, when the letterbox had rattled.

Knowing that he would be sent along to get the mail anyway, Harry had immediately gone to see what was there. Three letters were laid on the mat, one of them a postcard from Vernon's sister, Marge. Another letter looked to be a bill or something like that, while the third made him stop and stare.

Mr H. Potter

The Smallest Bedroom

4 Privet Drive

Little Whinging

Surrey

Harry slipped the letter with his own name on it into his pocket and took the two other letters back to Vernon to have a look at. The large man grumbled at the bill, before turning his attention to the postcard from his sister. He called through to Petunia that Marge was apparently ill, something to do with a funny whelk.

Harry wasn't entirely sure if that was really true. Marge Dursley was a very... robust woman, so it would take a lot to make her sick. Anyway, Harry wondered what she was doing on the Isle of Wight, she usually couldn't stand to be away from her dogs for very long, and he _knew_ that she would have at least taken Ripper with her, the most vicious of her dogs.

While this conversation was going on, Harry collected the breakfast dishes and washed them, before retreating to his bedroom to read the letter sent for him. On opening it, both he and Reinforce were stunned by what they found. For Harry, it was more about finding that he was being accepted to a school of magic.

For Reinforce, it was more about there being a population of mages on Earth. As far as she knew, and the memories she had stolen from Nanoha, Fate and countless TSAB mages agreed, Earth didn't have an organised magical community. The next thing that had her curious was the list of things a student was required to have.

She almost felt like laughing at the list, it was just so medieval. It sounded nothing like any magic system she'd ever heard of, but then again, maybe it would explain why Harry's linker core was so different from what she was used to. It was a possibility at least, if nothing else.

The two of them fell into a quick mental debate about what to do next. The answer they arrived at was to ask Petunia what she knew about all of this. Harry's mother had been her sister, and if he had inherited his magic from her or her husband, Petunia was far more likely to know than Vernon was.

xxxxx

Harry had waited until it was just him and Petunia in the house. Dudley had gone out with his gang and Vernon had gone to work, leaving the two of them alone in the house. Harry had done all of his chores but, instead of going off and practising his magic, he found Petunia in the living room.

"Aunt Petunia, may I ask you something?" Petunia jumped, having not heard her nephew enter the room. She looked over at the boy and, at the sight of the hair that covered the left side of his face, she felt an ever so tiny jolt of shame. Her Dudley had done that and, no matter how much of a freak he was, the boy probably hadn't deserved it. As a gesture of good will, she decided to allow the question for a change.

"Yes, boy, what is it?" She nearly snapped. Just because she was allowing the question, that didn't mean she had to be nice about it.

"I received a letter in the mail today. Would you know anything about this?" He asked, holding up the letter so that the Hogwarts emblem was clearly visible. Petunia paled and her skin took on the colour of old porridge. "I see, I guess you do know what this is about." Harry muttered.

Harry took another look at her before speaking. "I'm guessing that you don't like this. So, as not to bother you, if you could tell me how to get all of this sorted by myself, I could get it all done without bothering any of you. As I understand it, this would mean that you don't have to see me until next summer at the earliest."

Petunia narrowed her eyes at Harry, considering what her answer might be. "Very well, _boy. _Listen closely, I won't be saying this a second time. On Charing Cross Road in London, there is a pub that normal people can't see, it's called the Leaky Cauldron. That's the entrance to Diagon Alley, where you'll find all the shops you'll need. Your father was from an old and rich family, the bank there will probably be able to sort you out."

Harry nodded his head in thanks but Petunia wasn't finished. "Now, because I've told you this, all I can remember from when your mother was eleven, I want you to spend the rest of the summer at that pub place and rent a room. This will be the last time we see each other until next summer, is that clear?"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia." Harry said, bowing his head. He raced upstairs to fill a bag with everything he might need to take with him. He stuffed all of his clothes into it, along with some toiletries and the like. Before he ran back down stairs. Petunia shoved a few pounds into his hands 'for the bus' and he left.

Harry caught the bus into London and then made his way to Charing Cross Road. He soon found the pub that Petunia had mentioned, the Leaky Cauldron, and Harry was fascinated by the way that passers by seemed to miss it completely, their eyes sliding off it without even noticing it was there. Reinforce took note that the magic she felt from the building was similar in structure to the force-field around Privet Drive, but they were both different in their own ways. She began to try and puzzle out how the magic here worked, so she could use her Collect and Use skill to add it to her reportoire.


	3. Diagon Alley

AN: Wow, I'm really rolling these chapters out, aren't I? As I'm typing this up, Chapter 2 hasn't even been posted yet and I'm already starting on chapter 4. Anyway, I hope this is well received and all that jazz. For those who are wondering, there will be more Nanoha later in the story. There will be some cameos and so on when fourth year comes around, and the characters themselves will turn up for fifth year. Oh, the fun I will have then, hehehehehe.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 3 – Diagon Alley

The inside of the Leaky Cauldron was, well, rather unimpressive. It was clean, it was definitely clean, but it was also not very well lit and looked rather drab and dreary. There was a man behind the bar that had a bottle in one hand and a cleaning rag in the other who had looked up when Harry had entered the door and looked curiously at him.

The other patrons didn't pay him much attention, other than a few curious looks at the curtain of hair covering the left side of his face. One old man had taken one look at his clothes and muttered about ' unsightly muggle filth' under his breath, but neither Harry or Reinforce had any idea what that meant.

Harry approached the counter with not a little trepidation and wariness, but nothing happened and no one gave him a second glance on his way. The man behind the bar gave him a friendly, if not very clean, gap-toothed smile. "Well, lad, a muggle-born I'm guessing." At Harry's tilted head, he continued. "Looking for how to get into the alley?"

Harry nodded his head and Tom called a serving girl over to tend to the bar for a minute, not that anyone seemed to want a fresh drink right then. Tom led Harry out the back and towards the wall and bins there. Harry examined the place curiously, it didn't seem very magic, and looked back at Tom who grinned at him.

"I love showing the new ones the alley for the first time, their surprise and wonder really makes my day. Now, you see this brick here? Three up and two across it is, remember that when you get your own wand. Now, I just tap it like so and... voilà!" Tom said, but Harry's attention wasn't focused on him any more.

When Tom had tapped the brick, the wall had started to move. The bricks retreated backwards and formed an archway through which to walk. Harry and Reinforce were both taken aback, neither of them understanding how such magic was accomplished as it went against their understanding of the subject.

Before Harry stepped through the archway, he turned to Tom. "Is it at all possible for me to rent a room for the rest of the summer?" Harry asked meekly, his voice as hoarse and raspy as it usually was. Tom didn't seem to be much surprised by the question, thought the voice he'd spoken with did throw him a bit.

"Your parents not being very understanding of your magic?" He asked. "Don't worry, we get cases like that every now and then. Unlike the muggle world, we don't have too much of a problem with kids renting rooms and what not. Just get your money converted into our currency up at Gringotts there and we'll have no trouble." Tom told him. "Oh, I'll have to have a name to put in the books to know who's renting it though."

"Harry Potter." Harry said, before turning and wandering into the alley. Because of this, he didn't see the look of surprise that flashed across Tom's face. Tom, watching Harry's retreating back, decided to put the name down, but he wouldn't be shouting out about the Boy-Who-Lived staying in his pub. The kid didn't look the happiest or anything, he looked rather timid actually, so he'd probably appreciate him keeping things quiet.

xxxxx

Wandering down Diagon Alley, Reinforce hiding away inside his head, Harry felt a little overwhelmed by everything. Because of how he spent all of his time either by himself, in a library or just with Reinforce, the busy alley was quite the whirl of activity. There were so many things all over the place, but something Reinforce said to him calmed him down.

_~It's just like a regular shopping centre, Harry, just with different products. The Apothecary is like a Grocer's, there's a book shop there, a joke shop on the left and the Leaky Cauldron is just another pub. Those kids who are looking at that broomstick are just like other children that are examining the newest bicycle or something.~_

At that, Harry did calm down a bit, and he managed to enjoy trying to find equivalents to what he could see. There was a store selling plants and potion ingredients that Harry equated to a garden centre, a shop for quills and parchment that Harry equated to stationary and even a pet shop, as well as other things like that.

Harry took his book list out of his pocket and began trying to equate the subjects there were for with normal ones. History of Magic was obvious, history. Transfiguration might be like physics, the book about herbs and fungi might be similar to horticulture. Potions might be similar to chemistry, Fantastic Beasts and where to find them might well be similar to biology or something, and the Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection was probably about magical combat.

At the end of the alley, standing proud, was a snowy-white building which definitely looked like it was a bank. Comparing it to the other places down the alley, it looked like the most official and important building there. Standing either side of the doorway were two beings that Harry couldn't name.

The goblins, because that's what they were, stood about a head shorter than Harry, despite him not exactly being the tallest eleven year old around, and they had swarthy clever faces, pointed beards and rather long fingers and feet. They looked, in Harry's opinion, to be quite dexterous and their eyes were alert and scanning everyone they could see. Harry saw both goblins gave Harry a long, considering look, before their eyes went elsewhere.

Once through the burnished bronze doors, there was another set of doors, silver this time, with a message engraved into them. Harry read through the message carefully, and thought that, if nothing else, it was a good deterrent to would be thieves who might try and steal from them.

Another pair of goblins were standing either side of the silver doors and, like the last pair, they bowed Harry through the doors after giving him a look, letting him into the next room. On the other side, Harry and Reinforce saw a vast marble hall with about a hundred goblins sitting on high stools behind a long counter.

Not knowing where to go and not seeing any signs, Harry looked around for a goblin that might be free. He found one and went to stand before him, waiting for the goblin to finish whatever it was writing in its ledger and pay some attention to him.

He waited about five minutes before the goblin finished. Once done, the goblin looked up and regarded Harry curiously. "Patient, for a human I suppose. Well, what do you want?" The goblin asked sharply, eyeing Harry carefully and noting that Harry didn't jump at his harsh tone of voice.

"My name is Harry Potter, my non-magical aunt told me that my father was from a rich family and that I should enquire about any money that I may have inherited." Harry told the goblin, looking closely at it. His eye flickered down to the name plaque in front of the goblin. "Do you know how I may go about doing that, Mister Sharpclaw?"

The goblin gave Harry another look. "Most that claim to be Harry Potter have his scar on their foreheads. Tell me, are you going to shove such a thing in my face? The goblin asked. It couldn't fail to notice, to its own surprise, the surprise that Harry showed, and wondered if this _was_ the real boy, and that he possibly didn't know who he was.

"Come this way, client." The goblin said, getting down from his stool and leading Harry through a set of double doors. Harry was surprised to find that, instead of more marble, the hallway he was now being led down was stone. The passageway was also rather narrow and was lit by flickering torches.

Harry was eventually led to some sort of record room, where the goblin went off and retrieved some stone tablet of some kind. Harry regarded it curiously, not knowing what it was, but seeing the name 'POTTER' in capitals at the top of it. He looked at the goblin and asked what he was supposed to do.

"Splash your blood on this. If you are a part of the Potter family, the main branch at least, it'll let us know." The goblin then held a dagger out to Harry who inspected it to make sure it was clean first, before cutting the palm of his hand and letting the blood drip onto the tablet.

The goblin took the tablet back, and he obviously found whatever answers that Harry couldn't glean from it, as he nodded his head, before returning the tablet to wherever he'd retrieved it from. He then led Harry back through the stone passageways and elsewhere, eventually ending up in an office of some sort.

Harry asked what was up with the blood and the goblin replied. "Blood is important in magic, there _are_ reasons that some wizarding families place so much emphasis on it. Of course, the blood supremacists these days probably don't even know _why_ their cause was started in the first place. Added to that, most blood magic is illegal, and the idiots in power are sailing a ship without a sail." There was a definite tone of contempt in the goblins voice.

"So, I do have money here?" Harry asked.

The goblin rolled his eyes. "You have a trust fund that will be refilled annually from the family vault. Of course, it only activated recently, couldn't have you not possess enough money for your school supplies now, could we?" Harry paused as he thought about what the goblin said.

"Trust vault? Family vault? When will I be able to access the family vault?" He asked.

"Your trust vault will keep refilling itself annually, with the last refill the day before you turn seventeen. The family vault can only be accessed by the head of the family and those with permission from him or her. Wizards come of age at seventeen in this world, regardless of what age the muggles have it set at. Therefore, an heir will become a head of a family at seventeen, and thus allowed into the family vault." The goblin replied.

"So, I am the Heir for House Potter then?" Harry wondered out loud.

The goblin seemed about to say something, but he bit his tongue and growled out. "The heir of a family becomes the head when they turn seventeen if there is no one currently in that position." Something about that made Harry and Reinforce stop for a moment.

"Am I the Heir of House Potter?" Harry asked again, more directly this time.

The goblin repeated what he had said before. "You're avoiding the question." Harry mumbled, Reinforce going over what the goblin had said in his head. "My parents are dead, aren't they? That means that any wills they had made should have been enacted. If someone but their child was the head of House, it would be in there, right?"

An expression that Harry couldn't describe crossed the goblin's face as he spoke. "Wills can only be read either with their creators permission or when the subject of a will is deceased." That made Harry stop. If he was being denied access to his parents' will, then there was only one real reason for that.

"As a member of House Potter, am I allowed to ask who my head of House is?" The goblin nodded. "Am I also allowed to ask who the heir is?" Again another nod. "Then, can you tell me who my head of House is and who the heir is?" another nod and Harry rethought his question. "Who is the head of House Potter? Who is the Heir of House Potter?"

"The current head of House Potter is James Charlus Potter and the current Heir is Brian Andrew Potter." The goblin replied.

Harry's mind went blank as he slumped to the floor. His father was alive? He had a brother? Did this mean his mother was alive too? Wait... he had been left with the Dursleys, did that mean they just didn't want him? Tears began to appear in the corners of Harry's eyes and the goblin shifted awkwardly, not sure what to do.

Reinforce couldn't get through to him from within his mind, so she decided to appear next to him and try to comfort him that way. Sharpclaw jumped when a young woman with silver hair and red eyes suddenly appeared, but calmed down when she did nothing but hug Harry.

Sharpclaw looked on in interest as Harry Potter, the supposed Boy-Who-Lived, clung tightly to this unknown woman, drawing comfort from her presence. He barely held back a gasp as the curtain of hair that had hid the left side of his face was brushed aside by Reinforce's shoulder, revealing the corpse-like appearance of half of his body.

"Mister Sharpclaw." Reinforce spoke up after a moment. "What is the current status of James Potter and his wife?" She asked, piercing the goblin with her sharp and angular red eyes. Sharpclaw knew that he really shouldn't have revealed that the Potters were still alive, but apart from client confidentiality, the goblins were also honest, and Harry _did_ technically have the right to know the answers to his questions.

He sighed. "To the Wizarding World as a whole, James and Lily Potter are classified as deceased with a single child. As for what Gringotts knows, they are currently alive with three children. Harry Potters older twin brother, Brian, Harry Potter himself, and a girl named Rose. I'm afraid that I cannot reveal any more information than that due to client confidentiality and that only a member of House Potter is allowed to request that much information."

"Did they just not want me?" Harry muttered quietly, his hoarse voice becoming even more pronounced and noticeable. Reinforce gave Sharpclaw a look and he decided to ask a few questions he thought appropriate. Sharpclaw was not high in the hierarchy of goblins, and he didn't agree with some of what he had heard.

"Mr Potter, do you know who you are?" The two non-goblins gave Sharpclaw a confused look. "A history lesson then. Before you were born, there was a dark lord that was essentially running the British Wizarding World, he also had a few feelers in other countries. He is known today as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who. This is because the name he used, Lord Voldemort, was feared enough as not to be spoken aloud."

Harry's tears had dried up a little and both he and Reinforce were giving Sharpclaw their full attention. "As far as the Wizarding World is aware, Voldemort targeted you for some reason and personally killed your father and then your mother. He then tried to kill you as well, using a curse meant to inflict instant death. For some reason that no one can adequately explain, the curse rebounded off of you and destroyed him, leaving you alive and with a lightning bolt scar on your forehead."

Harry reached up to his own forehead and rubbed where just such a scar used to be, one that had faded since he had first met Reinforce. "The wizards and witches named you a saviour, giving you the moniker of the Boy-Who-Lived. There are storybooks and toys featuring you and you are probably, if not definitely, the most famous person in the entire magical world. The magical communities in other countries also know your name, you are that famous. Of course, no one has actually seen you since that Halloween, today being the first time you have been known to be out in public."

"I'm famous?" Harry's voice quivered, not quite believing it to be true.

Reinforce, however, had a few more practical things in mind. "Mister Sharpclaw, who has access to Harry's funds and how much does Harry possess?" She asked. When Sharpclaw looked at him, Harry nodded, giving permission for him to answer Reinforce's question.

"Mr Potter possesses many thousands of Galleons, enough to pay his way through Hogwarts, buy his supplies and essentially live off for about two decades. As for who has control of that money, that would be Mr. Potter himself, as well as his parents as they set the vault up in the first place." Reinforce looked at Harry.

"You said that it refills every year from the family vault, correct?" Sharpclaw nodded. "Can Harry transfer the money from his trust vault into a separate one that only he and those he allows can access?" A predatory smile spread across Sharpclaw's face.

"For the right price, yes, he can. It is also possible to set up an annual automatic transfer too. Is Mr Potter thinking about doing such a thing?" A dark look had entered Harry's eyes, one that Sharpclaw most definitely approved of. It would seem that whatever the Potters were planning would not be as smooth sailing as they had intended it to be.

"Mister Sharpclaw, could I trouble you to facilitate such a transfer and allow access of the vault to be limited to myself and Reinforce here?" He asked, before pausing and sharing a quick telepathic conversation with Reinforce. "Also, can I trust you to manage my resources and invest it in ventures and businesses that would bring me profit?"

Sharpclaw raised an eyebrow "You would trust a goblin to do business in your name?" He asked.

Harry thought about it. "You are a bank worker, aren't you? That means that profit is important to you. I don't know about goblin culture in general, but having money of your own is probably a good thing. How about this then. You receive five percent of any profits I make, that should give you an incentive to get me more money, don't you think?"

Sharpclaw chuckled. "It would see that today is my lucky day, Mr Potter. Normally, such a task is reserved for account managers, of which I am not one." He held out one hand towards Harry and Harry stood up, reaching out to shake hands with the goblin. "Let us get this agreement done, for mutual profit."

Sharpclaw then decided to say something else, glancing at Reinforce. "As an aside, because the wizarding world has James and Lily Potter listed as deceased, and they would hardly listen to goblins saying otherwise, you are currently without a magical guardian."

Reinforce picked up on what Sharpclaw was saying instantly. "And what qualifies you for magical guardianship?" She asked lightly, Harry also looking at them curiously.

"You need to be of age, have the agreement of the current magical guardians of your ward, actually be magical yourself and not have a registered conviction against you in the Wizarding World. The muggle world, to wizards, doesn't matter. You could be a criminal of the worst kind, but as long as it's 'only' muggles, wizards won't care." Sharpclaw replied.

Harry looked up to Reinforce with a pleading look in his eye, and she knew then what her answer would be, even if Harry hadn't actually asked the question. She was ancient, so age wasn't an issue. She was magical, that was never in question, and this was the first time she'd been in this 'Wizarding World' so she hadn't been convicted of anything.

xxxxx

Harry left the bank while rubbing at his wrist. While the muggle and magical worlds might appear different at first sight, they both had copious amounts of paperwork that needed filling in. Both he and Reinforce had been there for over an hour filling things in, making everything official. The appropriate forms would be filed with the Ministry of Magic later that same day, so that was everything sorted.

Now, with a bag full of money and Reinforce back inside him, Harry decided to get some shopping done. He thought about getting his robes first, but when he saw that someone else was in there, he decided to wait for evening when there would be no one there to see his disfigurement.

Harry chose to get everything else on his list first, saving the bookshop and books for his penultimate purchase. He then decided to get a telescope from a muggle shop after seeing just how primitive theirs were. They were charmed, but the muggle ones were still better even if they were more expensive. Harry did get the people in the shop to agree to putting the same charms on what he bought in the muggle world, improving on what it would already be able to do massively.

The scales were fine though, they were enchanted to be incredibly accurate, even more so than the muggle equivalent, which was quite the surprise to Harry. He asked the shopkeeper about that and he said it was because Potions was a very exacting subject where accuracy was incredibly important, especially so in the more advanced potions.

Harry's next purchase was a cauldron, where he _didn't_ purchase a pewter cauldron, because apparently the wizards hadn't updated the formula like the muggle world had, and he purchased a brass cauldron instead. It was a little bit more expensive, but it was also, apparently, more efficient as well.

After that, Harry got crystal phials. He decided to look through all of the different ones the shop had available and chose ones that had unbreakable charms on them, so as not to risk anything if dropped one. Harry wondered why unbreakable phials weren't standard, the shopkeeper told him that the charm was supposed to be a pretty easy one to cast.

Anyway, next on Harry's list was a wand. A shop that sold wands wasn't instantly obvious, and he had to ask around to find out where he was supposed to go, eventually ending up at Ollivander's. This particular shop was narrow and shabby looking. Peeling gold letters proclaimed that it had sold 'Fine Wands' since three hundred and eighty two BC. Harry supposed that they probably were of good quality if they'd been in the business for that long.

Harry pushed the door open, a tinkling bell ringing somewhere deep inside when he did so. The inside was tiny, much smaller than all of the other shops which had been magically expanded somehow. It was empty but for a single, rather spindly looking, chair.

"Good Afternoon." A soft voice said from right behind Harry. He was so surprised that he unconsciously cast a Bloody Dagger into his hand and lashed out as he spun round. The old man that had been stood behind him showed surprisingly quick reflexes as he dodged Harry's swing and took a step back.

"I will say, that's probably the most violent reaction I've ever gotten from surprising a customer." The man, presumably Ollivander, said, amusement evident in his tone of voice. "Perhaps I should rethink how I introduce myself, but alas, this has become something of a habit for me."

Ollivander looked curiously at Harry. "Now, I know that you are Harry Potter, but for some reason my wards detected a second person entering my shop alongside you. May I ask whether this 'Reinforce' person is hiding behind you?" Not really seeing how to answer the question, and already being detected, Reinforce appeared at Harry's shoulder.

Mr Ollivander didn't really show any surprise at the instantly appearing woman, merely muttering. "Interesting, interesting." To himself, over and over. "Now, I remember when your parents came to me to purchase their wands. Your father's was of mahogany, eleven inches and rather pliable, and was excellent for transfiguration. Your mother's, on the other hand was willow, ten and a quarter inches, and was good at charms. Hmm, I believe she was aiming for a charms mastery before she died. Never mind that for now, let's see which wand suits you."

Ollivander, who had gotten closer and closer to Harry as he spoke, suddenly disappeared off amongst the boxes that were shelved all around the shop. He pulled out one her and one there, mumbling to himself about the different characteristics of each wand. At one point, he paused and looked curiously at Reinforce, before pulling down more boxes.

"Right, let us get started. Let's see how a traditionally English wand suits you first. Ten and a half inches, oak with dragon heart-string. Go on, give it a wave." Harry looked at the wand in his hand... and it just felt wrong. He said as much to Ollivander, who merely looked very interested and simply encouraged him to wave it anyway.

Nothing happened.

Harry had felt the wand try and pull at his linker core, but it had twisted his magic a little and Harry had immediately cut it off before anything bad could happen. The wand was snatched out of his hand and another put in it's place, cherry wood and unicorn tail hair this time, and told to wave it again.

This one felt better, but still wasn't right. At this, Ollivander set some of the wands he'd collected aside, muttering about how cherry was a traditionally Japanese wand wood and unicorn was for those of a more gentle nature. It went on, Harry trying a wand, feeling whether it was a good or bad fit, telling Ollivander, and the stack of wands left to try began to shrink.

Eventually there was a small stack of cherry wood wands, all of them around thirteen or fourteen inches long, but with a variety of different cores. Apparently, these wands had unusual cores, from when Ollivander had first started making wands and had travelled quite a bit to get the materials.

A kitsune hair wand was no good, the same was true of a kappa heart-string wand. Harry got a rather good reaction from a wand with a core from a fenghuang, but the best one was a fourteen inch cherry wand with a yatagarasu feather in it. Reinforce thought it amusing that a black feather was the core of his wand, seeing as her flight spell involved black feathered wings.

"Interesting, interesting." Ollivander said. "Not a common wand, even more so for British wizards who almost all use dragon heart-string, unicorn tail hairs or phoenix feathers. I believe that some French people use mermaid or veela hairs sometimes, and the Greeks show quite an affinity for siren feathers and dragon teeth."

"What does my wand specialise in?" Harry asked, remembering what he had said about his parents' wands.

"Hmm? Oh, what does your wand specialise in? Well, it is a very Japanese wand, you could say. Cherry wood and yatagarasu feather, fourteen inches long exactly, it will specialise in illusions and healing. That wand also shows that you have an affinity for numbers, you might want to check out some Arithmancy books when you get to school." Ollivander informed him.

"Thank you, I will." Harry replied, leaving the shop as Reinforce re-entered his body.

Ollivander watched after him. "Hmm, I'm sure interesting things will happen with him around. It might be a good idea to keep an eye on that boy, and what kind of spirit was that woman? She was benevolent, at least towards Harry, but what is she? It's a shame that she probably wouldn't have given me a hair to work with, the things I could do with that." Ollivander shook his head as he retreated back into his shop.

Harry's next stop was the Apothecary, where he purchased potions ingredients. He decided to get a fair bit more than he was supposed to so he had some spare of he ever made a mistake and so he could practise before he went to school. He ended up getting twice the recommended amount, but he was sure that it would prove useful.

After that, Harry went to the bookshop. The place was amazing from Harry's point of view, like a library that he could really get used to. He quickly gathered together the required texts for first years before he started to look for supplementary reading.

He found a few potion books that he added to his stack, some of them more advanced than his current level, but others that detailed reactions and preparation techniques and the like. He also got all seven if Miranda Goshawk's Standard Books of Spells to read through as well. Sadly, there weren't many history books, but he purchased the ones that were there, as well as a whole pile of books on Magical Theory. A few transfiguration tomes and some on creatures were also added to the stack to complete the 'standard' set as Harry had termed it.

Harry then began to get some books as 'extra' as it were, things that didn't seem connected to anything on his list but looked either interesting or useful. He purchased three books on Divination, four on Ancient Runes, three on Arithmancy and three others that looked useful. One was about a type of magic called 'Animagi' that Harry was curious about, another was on Occlumency and Legilimency while the last one was a basic Alchemy book.

With all of his purchases, Harry decided that getting something to keep them in was a must next, and purchased a trunk. It wasn't the standard trunk, which was essentially a box, but one with an expanded space inside of it. The shopkeeper had eyed everything he'd been carrying and directed him over to it, also telling him about the different locking charms and so on that he could add for a price.

Harry did decide to secure his trunk, making it so that only he and Reinforce would be able to get in without breaking through the enchantments on it. Harry didn't know how difficult it would be to break the enchantments, but at least it would take _some_ sort of effort to do so, which should discourage a casual search. One thing he was really interested in was an identifying charm that would keep track of who had tried to get into his trunk, that was a must in Harry's opinion.

Finally, all that was left was his robes and possibly a pet of some sort. Seeing how wizards used owls to deliver mail and messages to each other, a bird of some sort was probably best. Reinforce had mentioned how a familiar created with either Belkan or Mid-Childan magic could take on human form and _that_ was rather interesting. Harry would see if anything appealed to him before he did anything like that though.

xxxxx

It was getting towards evening when Harry entered Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. As was usual, Reinforce was hidden away inside him, keeping a look out through Harry's eyes for anything he missed. There was a squat, smiling witch in mauve that smiled at him when he entered.

"Hogwarts, dear?" She asked, Harry nodding in reply.

She took him to the back of the shop to get measured up, there being no one there thankfully. The whole reason he had come late was because he didn't want anyone to really see the disfigured half of his face, and that would no doubt be revealed when he was measured up.

"We need to get that hair out of the way if we want things to be done properly, dear." Madam Malkin said, confirming Harry's fears. He sighed and acknowledged her, reaching up and pulling it to one side. He heard the expected yelp of surprise, keeping the red eye closed as to not make any more of a scene, and patiently waited while he was measured up.

Madam Malkin looked at him pityingly and asked whether Saint Mungo's or somewhere else might not be able to heal him. Harry had been to there earlier, after hearing about it for the first time. He'd used the floo, which he thought was one of the most ridiculous and uncomfortable modes of transportation there was, to get there.

As it turned out, there wasn't anything they could really do. They explained that, as a child below eleven, his magic wasn't stable enough to really use any major spells on him. It was apparently a big breakthrough in the wizarding world when someone had invented potions that were safe for children, and it was now too late to do anything about his disfigurement.

They had said that, after he turned seventeen and his magic had become fully settled, there might be something they could do then, but until that point, undergoing major surgery was a big no-no. There was apparently a way to fix bad eyesight in the Wizarding World, but using it before a child's magical maturity sometimes meant the effects wore off when their magic reached its peak and it would only work once.

Harry bought his robes and headed off to the Leaky Cauldron after that. He had a meal that Tom had cooked and went up to his room. Now that they were alone, Reinforce made her appearance and the pair of them sat down on the bed. Harry cried then, letting out everything that he'd been holding in during the day.

He cried about everything, his parents apparently not wanting him, that he was apparently famous and didn't know it, that there was nothing that could be done to heal his disfigurement, that he was once more alone except for Reinforce, everything.

Reinforce comforted him as best she could, telling him stories about things that Harry had never heard of before. She spoke of Ancient Belka and more recent things, the memories she'd absorbed from Nanoha Takamachi about when she first became a magical girl, the incident that she herself had caused, and many other things beside.

The two of them eventually fell asleep like that, cuddled up, and fully clothed on top of Harry's bed.


	4. Arriving at Hogwarts

AN: Okay now, this is getting rather ridiculous. I've now written chapters 2 through 4 and it hasn't even been a day since chapter 1 was posted. Now, I have a question. What House do you want Harry to be in? I guess that I could make an argument for any one of them, but where do you think he should go?

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 4 – Arriving at Hogwarts

For the rest of the summer, Harry and Reinforce explored the alley a little and read through Harry's book. Reinforce did get a little frustrated with how everything in the Wizarding World seemed to defy what she personally knew about magic. For example, she had never heard of anything like accidental magic before, that just didn't happen with mages.

Another thing was _how_ their magic worked. Belkan and Mid-Childan style magic used the already existing laws of reality and followed them to produce an effect, it was very scientific. Wizarding magic, however, seemed to be more focused on concentration and intent.

Harry had begun to try out a few of the spells he'd seen in his books, things like Lumos, Repairo and Alohomora, and they'd all done exactly what they were supposed to. Reinforce, using Harry's wand, had also gotten the spells to work, but it had taken far more effort from her than it had Harry.

Reinforce began to think that it might be because of how their linker cores were structured differently that magic worked differently for them. The changes she'd been keeping an eye on in regards to Harry's linker core had made it more like one she was familiar with, but had also made it different to what it had been before.

Anyway, they eventually found a book on illusions, which Harry's wand apparently specialised in, but what they found was much too advanced for Harry to attempt yet. The books they'd bought on Arithmancy, however, were much more in line with what Harry found comfortable.

Arithmancy, from what Harry and Reinforce could see, was the one subject that seemed the most similar to the magic they both knew. It was very mathematically based, and the book included tables of numbers for various things. The maths in the book, Reinforce thought, was about what would be expected from secondary school students, so it wasn't massively advanced, and she started using things she found in it when she tutored Harry.

Neither of them had spoken about the Potters or Harry's fame since the revelations had been discovered, except for once when Harry had verbally considered changing his name. Seeing as he didn't know what he would change it to, though, meant that nothing came of it.

Harry's self taught lessons in Wizarding magic, he thought, were rather bizarre. Rather than learning how to focus his magic and shape it into what he wanted it to become, he had went out in the muggle world to buy matches and brought them back to try and change them into needles.

It had taken him about two hours worth of attempts, but he had eventually done it. It also turned out to be harder to turn the needle back into a match, but he managed that as well. One spell that Harry found he was good at was the levitation charm. He supposed that already knowing about the forces involved, due to his attempts at learning flight magic, meant that he could grasp the concepts involved much easier than transfiguration.

They found that Harry seemed to have a natural aptitude for runes when Harry began reading them. Due to his fascination with Norse and Egyptian gods, he already knew more than a fair few Futhark runes and their meanings, as well as a fair few hieroglyphics.

Potions, from what they could tell, was like an extremely strict cooking recipe. Harry had to read the preparation book three times to get used to all of the terminology involved, about exactly how much was a splash, how much was a handful, and so on and so forth.

Harry had, he thought, made a more than passable bruise balm when he'd tried that fairly simple potion. He and Reinforce had measured out every ingredient as exactly as possible before they'd started brewing it, also using timers so they could get everything exactly right and counting everything out as they did it.

Astronomy was a subject that Harry was a little unsure of. In all honesty, he didn't understand how they affected certain spells, rituals, potions and ingredients, but they apparently did. Having Reinforce around, someone who had knowledge of multiple planets and celestial bodies, also not know how they could affect such things just compounded that.

Anyway, Harry rather enjoyed his time at the Leaky Cauldron. He asked Tom and was allowed to help with the cooking, a domestic chore that Harry actually did like to do. It also gave him something to do when he wasn't practising magic and exploring the alley.

Tom, in return, showed him how spells were done in the evenings when the bar was empty, giving him examples of the spells that Harry was trying to cast. He also turned out to be a more than fair hand at potions and gave him some tips and tricks that weren't in the books and explained why they worked.

Harry found that hanging around the Leaky Cauldron's main room was also a good way to pick up on the politics of the Wizarding World as well. Hearing the patrons muttering about what they read in the paper or who walked through the door let him see how things worked in their world.

It was that way that he discovered the 'blood' system, as it could be called. The pure bloods tended to be at the top of the hierarchy, with only a few exceptions, and then there were the half-bloods and then the muggle-borns. From what he heard, those of 'lesser' blood had to work harder and get better results than those of 'purer' blood to make an impression.

Oh, someone with high grades was always a preferred employee over someone with lower grades, regardless of blood status. Equal grades, however, would find that the one of 'purer' blood tended to come out on top because they had connections due to living in the Wizarding World longer.

In this time, before Harry was to leave for Hogwarts, he also got a pet of his own. There had been this young raven that he had liked in the Magical Menagerie, but he hadn't known whether he'd be allowed to take it to Hogwarts with him. He had sent an owl from the post office to the deputy headmistress, along with his acceptance letter, asking whether it would be allowed, and he had received a positive response.

Harry decided that he would leave the bird as it was for now, and if he found he and it got along together by the end of the school year, he would then consider changing it into his familiar. Reinforce encouraged this because a familiar was for life, and having an ill-suited one would be a bad thing.

The raven, Harry had named Loki, because of how it seemed to be a mischievous sort. When he had went to the pet shop the second time, to actually buy the raven, he had found it trying to pick the lock on its cage with a hair clip that was held in its beak.

Harry had not kept him in a cage, and was happy to find that Loki had not flown off, when he was stretching his wings aside. Harry had purchased a supply of treats for the raven that should last the year. Loki could be used as a messenger bird, just like an owl could, but Harry didn't really know who he'd be sending a letter to as he knew no one.

xxxxx

A lot of interesting people passed through the Leaky Cauldron, and Harry took note of a few names in particular. A scared looking man, named Quirinus Quirrel, was apparently supposed to be his Defence Against the Dark Arts professor that year. Harry hoped that he was more than he appeared to be, he looked like he would be scared to death by his own shadow one day.

Another person that Harry took notice of was a man named Rubeus Hagrid. He was a very large man, and Harry wondered if he was fully human, that had a voice to match his size and a wild and untamed beard. His eyes were kind though, beetle black but filled with warmth. He was apparently the grounds keeper or something like that, and _everyone_ in the Leaky Cauldron knew he was there on 'important business for Dumbledore', because he said so himself. Apparently, Hagrid just couldn't keep a secret.

The name Dumbledore was also important, it was the name of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the school he was to attend. From what Harry heard about the man, he pretty much had his own cult following. A lot of people sung the man's praises, exclaiming about the 'great' Albus Dumbledore. There were also those that called him a 'muggle loving fool' and others that described him as 'brilliant but barmy'.

Another professor at Hogwarts was Severus Snape. Harry saw the man purchasing quality ingredients at the Apothecary and heard the shopkeeper refer to him as 'Professor Snape', leading Harry to speak to him. Snape had answered the questions he'd asked in a direct manner without rambling on and Harry liked that. He had noticed Snape shoot a few glances at him as if he was trying to puzzle something out, but didn't ask about what that might be, if Snape wanted to ask him something then he would.

There were also students that came through multiple times. There were those that came by themselves, these ones tended to be older than the others, and there were those that came with their family, but a fair number of them were muggle-borns that were accompanied by Minerva Mcgonagall.

The muggle-borns, and their parents as well, tended to have rather awestruck expressions at everything they encountered. There was a boy that came through with his parents, a business man for his father by the looks of things, named Justin Finch-Fletchey. His mother seemed torn about whether to send her son to Hogwarts or Eton, and she kept asking Mcgonagall all sorts of questions.

One girl that came through seemed to be almost as painfully shy as Harry was, a girl named Sally-Anne Perks. She mostly hid behind her parents as Mcgonagall led them through everything. It was a very different story when another girl came through, one Hermione Granger didn't seem capable of not asking questions and her voice was already giving Harry a headache.

xxxxx

Before he left for Hogwarts, Harry did disappear into the muggle world with Reinforce at his side for a while. He had some of his Galleons converted into pounds and went clothes shopping for himself and Reinforce. Now that he was no longer at Privet Drive, there was no need for him to wear Dudley's cast-offs and Reinforce could do with a change of clothing herself.

Harry chose to stick with basic clothes, dark jeans and shirts primarily. With how he wore his hair, he knew that he had a pretty stereotypical 'emo' appearance, but he didn't much care. Harry did buy a trench coat, and he later took it to Madam Malkin's to get it enchanted with temperature control charms and so on, and he wore that most of the time.

Reinforce chose a small variety of dresses, shirts and trousers, giving herself a little variety. Of course, with her silver coloured hair and her angular red eyes, she was rather striking and she did get a lot of attention from people. Harry saw some men trying to take pictures of Reinforce on their phones and the pair of them had dodged into side streets at times to avoid them.

Harry also got a few knick-knacks for himself while he was in the muggle world. He got some text books for science, maths and other subjects that a muggle school would teach. He might not be learning things like that in his lessons at Hogwarts, but he wanted to keep up with it, and he had an absolutely brilliant teacher in Reinforce.

He also bought several notebooks to write things down in from muggle London, not really liking the idea of having all of that loose parchment in his bag that the magical world offered. He also bought a fountain pen and ink refills, not believing that his hand-writing would be very good with a quill.

xxxxx

Eventually, September first arrived. Harry had asked Tom how to get to Platform Nine and Three-quarters, having never heard of such a thing and not seen it when he'd went there by himself before. It turned out that there was some kind of portal between platform nine and platform ten that would take you to this 'magical' platform where a train would take you to Hogwarts.

He got up early in the morning, and had quite a large breakfast that was cooked by Tom. He had packed his trunk the might before, so he was all prepared to go. Loki had taken up a perch on his right shoulder and Harry had asked him whether he wanted to fly to Hogwarts ahead of them.

Harry could swear that animals in the Wizarding World were far more intelligent than their muggle counterparts, as Loki seemed to actually consider it before he flew off. Harry wondered what it was that made animals so intelligent and asked Reinforce her thoughts on the matter.

Of course, she didn't have an answer for him, merely guesses. She thought that there were several plausible answers though, which she gave him. One idea was that animals that spent a lot of time around magic might have it 'rub off' on them and grant them a few things like intelligence and so on. Another idea was that specific spells were cast on animals such as post owls and the like to make them capable of such things. Another idea was that they were specially bred to be that intelligent and capable and were essentially a branch of the species all by themselves. Her final idea was that the wizards had bred some magical animals with properties they desired into regular animals somehow, giving them the abilities they wanted in a form that most muggles would ignore.

Harry caught a bus to King's Cross, arriving there just before ten o'clock so he had plenty of time. He half-dragged his trunk behind him as he looked for platforms nine and ten. When he found the right place, he leaned against it, puzzled when he didn't fall through.

He looked up at the clock and saw the minute hand tick forwards onto the twelve. As it did so, Harry stumbled through the portal that had suddenly opened behind him and onto the empty platform. Harry looked behind himself to see a wrought-iron archway with the words 'Platform Nine and Three-Quarters' on it.

Harry shrugged and dragged his trunk towards the train, pulling it behind him all of the way. He found a compartment at the back, obviously empty, and changed into his robes right away. He made sure his hair was covering the left side of his face as he brought three books out of his trunk, the journey was supposed to be a pretty long one and he'd need something to occupy his time with.

He opened one of the books, one on Arithmancy, and settled in to wait. It was about ten minutes later that people began to stream onto the platform, and even then they said goodbye before the kids jumped onto the train, and Harry glanced up and observed the goings on through the window.

The half and pure bloods were fairly easy to tell apart from the rest. The ones which apparated, a type of teleportation that had a rather limited range, and those that flooed onto the platform were ones that obviously had more of a familiarity with the wizarding world.

Those that arrived from the muggle side were mostly muggle-borns, but Harry thought a few of them might be half and pure bloods as well. There was absolutely no way that some of the people coming through the barrier would be able to blend in well with what they were wearing. One man had acid green jodhpurs and a pink dress shirt on while he guided his son who was wearing a nightgown on top of more regular clothes.

Several people walked past the compartment Harry was in before they moved on. Some with green trim seemed to be trying to work out who he was, but when they didn't recognise him he became someone 'not important'. Was the Wizarding population really that low that everyone knew every pure blood in the country?

From what he'd heard, Diagon and Knockturn Alley were the only wizarding shopping centres in England. Apparently, up in Scotland and near Hogwarts castle, there was a village named Hogsmeade as well, but was that really it? It seemed to be ever so small, especially compared to how massive the muggle world was.

A patch of red drew Harry's eye and he caught sight of what must be an entire family of redheads. Everyone, even both parents, had exactly the same shade of red hair as everyone else did. By the looks of things, they had four boys going to Hogwarts and, judging by the complaints, the girl with them was just a year off from going herself.

The platform had turned quite noisy with everyone there and all manner of creatures. Owls hooted, cats of all colours meowed as they wound their way through the crowds, only one boy had a toad though, that Harry noticed at least. A black boy had a box in his hands, and from it one hairy spider leg poked out.

One of the red headed boys had a rat poking out of one pocket, and there were a few more pets around that hadn't been on that list that Harry had gotten, so he wasn't alone in having a different pet. One girl had a snake around her neck like a scarf, another had some brightly coloured bird that looked most definitely exotic, and there was something that Harry simply couldn't describe that was all long spiny legs and jewel bright eyes.

"Oh, excuse me." Harry looked up as his compartment door opened and saw one of the muggle-borns he'd seen over the summer, Sally-Anne Perks if he remembered right. She looked in at the boy who was already wearing Hogwarts robes, a book open in his lap and two at his side. "D-Do you mind if I join you in this compartment?" She asked, stuttering a little.

Harry tilted his head to one side, before he gestured to the seats across from him. Sally-Anne breathed a sigh of relief. She'd tried to sit with some other people earlier, but they'd chased her off because the didn't want 'a filthy mudblood contaminating their compartment'.

She struggled with her trunk for a moment before Harry came across and helped her get it onto the rack and next to his. She thanked him, he bowed his head, and then they both sat down. Harry went back to reading the book he had been and Sally-Anne fiddled nervously for a little bit, before following suit and getting a book to read out of her trunk.

Things were quiet between the two of them for quite a while, falling into an easy silence as both became more and more absorbed by what they were reading. Sally-Anne's eyes did flicker up every now and then to look at the silent boy she shared a compartment with and took in his appearance.

He was a little bit shorter than her, and she was about average for an eleven year old, and his skin was fairly pale but not unhealthily so. The one eye she could see was a deep green and, when he looked up and the light shone in it, she thought that it had flashed red for a moment but that was obviously just a trick of the light.

His straight black hair covered the left half of his face completely, and there was a streak of silver in that side as well. The features that she could see were delicate without being overly feminine, and rather sharp too. His eyes had an ever so slight tilt upwards, suggesting there was a little bit of foreign blood in him, but not a lot.

She was interrupted from her examination by the door opening again. This time, a red haired boy with a smudge of dirt on his nose and a lot of freckles poked his nose in. He looked at her and then at Harry, frowning before he closed the door and walked away.

Sally-Anne was a little glad that the redhead hadn't asked to sit with them. She was rather shy, and she'd found herself comfortable in this compartment with the quiet boy. Actually, it was like being in a compartment by herself for all of the attention that Harry spared her.

"Ex-Excuse me." She said, deciding to at least _try_ and talk to someone. Her parents had said that she should try and come out of her shell and make friends. She saw that Harry's one visible eye was now locked on her and she wet her lips before continuing. "M-My name is Sally-Anne, what's yours?" She asked.

"Harry." The boy replied, his voice raspy and hoarse.

"W-Well, Harry, are you a muggle-born like me?" She was taken a little by surprise at how rough Harry's voice was and the one word answer she had been given too, but she'd started talking now, she was going to continue and maybe make a friend.

"No, half-blood." Harry replied, his brow furrowing in a frown. "Raised by muggles though."

"Do you know much about Hogwarts?" She asked.

Harry shook his head. "Only what's in Hogwarts: A History." He said.

"Are you aiming for any house in particular?" She asked.

"Not really. Parents were in Gryffindor, might end up there myself. I have no particular inclination one way or another, it doesn't much matter to me." harry replied, the most he'd spoken to her in one go.

"My parents want me to make some friends while I'm here. I guess that Hufflepuff would probably be best for that." She ducked her head, waiting for his rejection of her. She'd heard that Hufflepuff was supposed to be a friendly house, but she'd also heard it wasn't a very highly thought of house too.

"Maybe. Judging an entire group of people because of a small sample is a bad idea though. Go wherever you want to go, if you get a choice, not where someone else puts you." Harry shrugged. Personally, he really didn't care where he ended up. He didn't actually know how they got separated into houses either, just that they would be 'sorted' somehow.

He didn't feel a particular attachment to any of the values that the houses were supposed to embody. Gryffindors were supposed to be brave and courageous. He supposed that he could be that if it was necessary, but it wasn't exactly his permanent state of being.

Ravenclaw was supposed to be the house of intelligence and knowledge. Harry believed that, without Reinforce, he wouldn't be half as smart as he currently was so the credit was hers and not his. Then again, she was a lot older than he was and had a lot of time to gather said knowledge.

Hufflepuff was the house of Loyalty and Hard Work. The only person that Harry would consider himself loyal to was Reinforce herself, and that wasn't exactly something to set him apart from other people with. He supposed he _could_ be considered a hard worker, but it had always been for a reason rather than hard work for its own sake.

Slytherin was the house for Ambition and Cunning. Harry didn't think that he was particularly cunning, he didn't get involved with people often enough to really even think about such a thing. His ambitions were also fairly achievable, he wanted to join the TSAB and he'd be happy to do so.

The two of them fell into quiet again and went back to reading their books. That red haired boy from before did come back several more times, as if he was looking for something, but whatever it was he didn't find it. A pale boy with slicked back blonde hair also turned up, looked at both of them, and then left again with his nose in the air.

The only other two interruptions during the journey were from two people looking for the same thing, a round faced boy that was apparently looking for his toad and a girl who was helping him look. Both times, Harry simply said that their best bet was to get an older student to summon the toad for them.

Oh, there was one more interruption. A woman pushing a snack cart down the train turned up and asked if they wanted anything off the trolley. Harry got a small sample of each of them and set some aside for Reinforce to try later, sharing what he'd purchased with Sally-Anne.

Said girl seemed quite happy that Harry was being nice to her, she really was painfully shy. The two of them did talk, if little, and they found out a few things about each other. Sally-Anne, it turned out, had a prosthetic leg and a glass eye from a car accident when they were younger. This prompted Harry to show her the scarring he had, and he was happy to see no condemnation nor pity in her eyes or response. If anything, being disfigured and crippled together meant they were just a tiny bit closer.

Eventually, they arrived at the station. A voice on speakers told them that their luggage would be taken to the castle separately and they should disembark now. Harry and Sally-Anne stuck fairly close together as they got off the train and looked about for where they were supposed to go.

It turned out that they were supposed to follow Hagrid, the large man that Harry had seen in the Leaky Cauldron, that was stood there with a lantern in one hand and calling out for first years in a rather thick accent. Hagrid seemed to be looking for someone, but didn't seem to see who it was that he was looking for.

They were led down a steep and narrow path, stumbling all the way, down to the edge of a large lake. It was so dark either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees all around them. It didn't bother him much, because he'd gotten used to using senses other than sight due to keeping his left side always blocked.

Tom at the Leaky Cauldron had suggested that he at least get a one-way transparency charm cast on it so he could see properly, and Harry had agreed. It had taken a little while to get used to having proper depth-perception again, and he had stumbled around a bit during that time, but he was glad of it now.

When they turned a corner at the bottom of the path, they got their first sight of Hogwarts proper. Even Reinforce admitted that it was a rather impressive sight, a grand castle that looked to have seven floors plus towers and who knew how many basement and dungeon levels there were.

Down by the edge of the lake was a fleet of small boats. Harry and Sally-Anne climbed into one, followed by a dark skinned Italian looking boy and a blonde girl with piercing blue eyes. They didn't talk at all as the boats were propelled across the lake by magic somehow, Reinforce and Harry telepathically discussing how it might work.

They ended up in an underground harbour of some kind, where they climbed out. Harry noted that the girl in the boat they shared acted rather elegant and lady-like, a surprise considering their young age. The boy seemed relaxed, but Harry could see the calculating look in his eyes as he observed everyone.

Harry's attention turned back to Hagrid as he led them up to a large set of double doors and knocked on them with his heavy fists three times. Idly, Harry wondered how strong the doors were to not be dented by Hagrid's massive strength, as they weren't dented in the slightest.


	5. The Sorting

AN: For those of you who have been asking, no, I have not abandoned Fate's Gamble. I am taking a bit of a break though, maybe a week or two, three at the most, because I was starting to run a little dry on ideas. This story, for now, is pretty much writing itself, and because I have so many ideas for it, the chapters are going to come thick and fast. I will say that my Harry has a pretty crumby back story, though I've only actually told sakurademonalchemist what that actually is. Suffice to say, the Potters weren't the nicest people in regards to Harry, but it is pretty well justified at the same time... if that makes any sense at all. The whole story will come out eventually, but it's not exactly going to be easy for Harry to get those answers, I'll say that much.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 5 – The Sorting

The doors opened immediately, and Harry thought that it was probably done like that for show, to awe the children who would be seeing Hogwarts for the first time. Harry's cynical side reared its head again, and he had to fight to keep his lips from thinning as he thought some not very pleasant things about wizards in general.

Reinforce, of course, scolded him for what he was thinking, but made no move to disagree with the sentiment. It might be tarring everyone with the same brush, but they hadn't had the best impression of the Wizarding World so far. Reinforce mentally nudged him, making him focus back on what was happening.

In the doorway stood a tall, black-haired witch who wore emerald green robes. She had a very stern look about her, and Harry tentatively catalogued her as a strict but potentially professional educator. Teachers that tried to baby and befriend their classes tended to not be the best ones there were, hopefully Mcgonagall, for that's who it was, would be good. Harry recalled what he'd heard about her during his stay at the Leaky Cauldron and remembered that she was fondly mentioned and supposedly very good at her subject.

Hagrid handed the students off to professor Mcgonagall, before he sidled off. It was rather surprising how easily and quietly Hagrid managed to disappear, he was a rather large, loud, and clumsy looking person after all. Harry's eyes followed the man as he disappeared through a side door, before returning his attention back to Mcgonagall who was leading them through a different side door.

The Entrance Hall they had were walking through was large, very large. In fact, it was so big that Harry estimated it to have about twice the volume of the Dursleys' entire home. The walls were stone and lit with flaming torches, the floor was stone flags and Harry thought that, unless it was magically heated somehow, winter was going to be very cold.

As they passed by what Harry thought was the Great Hall, he heard the low murmur of hundreds of voices. They were led, by Mcgonagall, into a relatively small side chamber, where most of the new first years crowded rather closer together than they normally would.

Mcgonagall gave them a traditional greeting, or at least Harry thought that's what it was. He almost snorted when he heard her refer to a house as a family, he seriously doubted that a house being anything at all like the Dursleys was a good thing, not to mention the fact that his birth parents apparently didn't want him.

He listened curiously when she mentioned the house points system, and wondered if that was it. It was all well and good to distribute 'points', but what were they actually worth? As far as he could see, the only one who gained anything was the head of house, who merely got a decoration to stick in their office at the end of they year.

Once Mcgonagall had left, Harry looked around the room. He saw a desk next to one wall and went over to sit on it. He was followed by Sally-Anne and, surprisingly, the other two that they had shared the boat journey with. Harry cast a look over the two of them, examining them, and found a few things worth noting.

For one, the robes they were wearing were of a very fine quality, and also seemed to have had some sort of magic added to them as well. Another was their posture, they looked more relaxed than a fair number of the other first years, but a close look revealed a slight tenseness that they were obviously trying to hide.

Harry was also paying attention to how they reacted to the other first years. Both of them had swept their eyes across the group and there were a few reactions. The girl had gained a slightly furrowed brow and the boy had had his lips twitch downwards at the sight of a pale blonde boy. The both of them also seemed to harbour a small amount of disdain with regards to the red-haired boy with a dirt smudged nose. The bushy-haired girl that was muttering spells under her breath was also spared a look, a calculative one this time, before they moved on.

Sally-Anne, not being able to take the quiet for much longer, had decided to try and strike up conversation. "He-Hello there, my name is Sally-Anne. What's yours?" She asked.

"Blaise Zabini." The Italian boy answered.

"Daphne Greengrass." The girl replied.

The both of them looked at Harry who looked right back, before he replied in an undertone. "Harry Potter."

At that, and like Harry had expected, the two of them immediately evaluated Harry. They took in his clothing, how he was sitting, the way half of his face was hidden, all of it. Daphne's eyes were like chips of ice, and Harry found it very difficult to glean much from them, but Blaise's held open curiosity, even if he didn't voice it aloud.

Their attention was drawn by an argument that was developing over at the other side of the room. From what Harry could gather, the red-haired boy, who Daphne identified as Ronald Weasley, had had some sort of issue with the blond boy with aristocratic and vaguely French features, who Blaise identified as Draco Malfoy, the son of Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.

It looked like Ronald Weasley had referred to Draco Malfoy as a 'slimy snake and death eater-in-training'. Malfoy had responded by making derogatory comments about the Weasleys being blood-traitors and not being very rich. The kids around them had started to form sides as their argument got more and more heated.

Harry's attention was caught when the mention of that deplorable title, 'the Boy-Who-Lived', was brought up. It seemed that both of them were adamant that he would have joined their side of the argument if he was there. Weasley had said there was no way that Harry would side with evil people like Malfoy, while the other had claimed that Harry should have more sense than to get dragged down by Weasleys.

Sally-Anne, Daphne and Blaise all looked at Harry curiously, amusement dancing in the eyes of the Italian boy. Harry just shook his head at them, it was presumptuous of them to assume that he would join either of them, especially as they couldn't recognise him when he was just a few feet away from them.

"I pity whoever ends up in the same house as either of them, that would certainly not be a pleasant situation." Harry rasped quietly. Harry was slightly amused when both Daphne and Blaise winced slightly and frowned slightly at Malfoy.

"No doubt in my mind where he's going to end up, he'd throw a fit and go crying to daddy if he wasn't put in Slytherin." Blaise muttered. "Shame that, I know that I'm most likely to end up there as well. I'm seriously not looking forward to sharing a dormitory with him for the next seven years."

Daphne sniffed. "I'll give you that. While I will most probably be in the same house as him, the girls and boys are separated so I won't have to deal with him all of the time, just most. _How_ he's going to end up in Slytherin is another matter, he's about as subtle as Weasley and they are all die-hard Gryffindors."

"I think it'll be Ravenclaw for me then. Learning new things seems appropriate enough, and Hufflepuffs are supposed to be really friendly so I'd rather avoid that house so I'm not smothered to death." Harry muttered dryly. "Not Gryffindor, not Slytherin and probably not Hufflepuff. Whether it perfectly suits me or not, it looks like I'm heading for Ravenclaw."

"So you're not the hero, the saviour, then?" Blaise asked. "Everyone believes that you've been raised as a hero and that you will be dead set on going to Gryffindor. There are those that believe, not without reason, that you were raised by Dumbledore himself as his protégée."

Harry shook his head. "Your information is wrong. I've read the books that are supposedly about me and all of the facts can actually be summed up in one short paragraph, everything else is made up or simply wrong."

It was interesting to note that, because of the developing argument, hardly anyone noticed when a group of ghosts floated through a wall, Malfoy's and Weasley's voices drown out whatever the ghosts were discussing too. The ghosts seemed a little stunned by what they'd come across and didn't remain long, floating through the opposite wall with not many really having paid attention to them.

Before Harry's conversation could recommence, having paused when the ghosts entered, and before the Weasley/Malfoy argument could develop any further, Mcgonagall had returned. She had them form a single file line and they followed her out of the side chamber, back across the hall, and then into the Great Hall.

Harry, still with Sally-Anne, Blaise and Daphne, looked curiously around the Great Hall. Harry's first thought was that, despite how full it was, it had a decidedly empty feeling about it. From what he'd read, Hogwarts had once housed over a thousand students, with a few other smaller magical schools dotted here and there through the UK. Now, since the war with Voldemort a decade ago, Hogwarts was the only magical school in the UK and, looking around, Harry estimated there to be about three hundred people in total present, the new first years and staff included.

Harry's next thought was that the ceiling was rather pretty. A bit different to his first thought, but it was most definitely an observation worth making. It didn't look like there was really a ceiling there at all, as if the hall opened up to the heavens, but he knew it had merely been charmed to be transparent. Granted, it was done on a larger scale than had ever been recorded, but the magic involved was an illusion spell that sixth years were supposed to be capable of.

Harry then looked at the four house tables. On the far left was a table presided over by a banner of red and gold, the Gryffindor table. The students sat there seemed to be quite happy, a number of them also seemed to be fairly athletic and sporty too, and they were amongst the loudest present.

The next table along, Ravenclaw's, had a blue and bronze table next to it. There was some quiet chatter amongst the students sat there, even a couple that seemed to be discussing homework, as stereotypical as that was. Harry was also rather surprised to see that a number of people in Ravenclaw had Asiatic features, and wondered if there was a reason for that.

The first table on Harry's right was Hufflepuff, their house colours being yellow and black. Their were warm smiles on their faces, and they looked like a rather welcoming bunch. Harry also knew that keeping secrets while being amongst them was difficult, specifically _because_ of their friendly and inclusive nature.

The table on the far right, Slytherin, had a banner of green and silver next to them. This table was the quietest in the hall, small cliques of people talking together in low voices all down its length. The people sat at this table also had a distinctive 'look' about themselves. Either they possessed refined and aristocratic features, or they were butt-ugly. There _were_ a few more normal and average looking people sat there, but they were fewer than anywhere else.

Every table had, what looked like, solid gold plates and goblets. The knives, forks and spoons also seemed to be made of the same substance. Either there was a specific reason for making them from gold, it may possible be a rather good material for enchanting or something like that, or it was yet another way of showing off. Harry noticed that everything was solid and not as soft as pure gold would be, so it was likely already enchanted to hold its shape like a Galleon was.

Floating in mid-air, all through out the hall, were candles. Harry examined one of the close ones and saw that, despite the wick burning brightly, it did not seem to be going down and nor did the wax seem to be melting. Was this more tradition, or more showing off?

Harry cast these thoughts out of his mind for now as he looked towards the far end of the hall. In front of the staff table, Mcgonagall had set down an old and tatty hat on top of a four-legged stool. She stood next to it, a piece of parchment in her hands and waited.

To Harry's surprise, the hat began to sing. A bloody hat, began to _sing_! Harry was sure that if his life was a cartoon or anime, he would have swirly eyes of confusion right about then. How could a hat sing? How could it be intelligent enough to administer a kind of personality test?

Okay, that might sound a bit unfair from someone who knew how small an Intelligent Device could be, but still. As far as Harry could see, there was no technology involved, just fabric and, well, magic. Magic seemed to be the answer to everything in the Wizarding World. Something you can't explain happen? Well, it was obviously magic! Do we want to try and explain it, find out _how_ it happened? No, let's just find out how to duplicate it, rather than give people a fundamental understanding of how such a thing can be achieved.

Wait... was that hat saying it was going to be reading their minds? That... that was something that didn't sit too well with Harry. He had secrets that he wanted to keep to himself after all, like Reinforce and what he'd learned of Ancient Belkan magic for example, and all he had to go on was the hat's word that it wouldn't spread such information about.

Also, if the hat could do this itself, then could witches and wizards themselves do it? Harry had only read the introduction of that book he'd bought on Occlumency, and it had only briefly mentioned Legilimency, so maybe something like that truly _was_ possible.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted." Mcgonagall said, breaking Harry out of his thoughts. "Hannah Abbot!" Harry then watched a pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumble out of line and up to the front.

Deciding that putting it off, and that a pre-emptive move was better than a reactionary one, Harry tried to induce a telepathic connection with the Sorting Hat once Hannah had been sorted into Hufflepuff. It was a little weird doing that, since the only one that Harry had really used telepathy with was Reinforce and she spent the majority of her time actually inside his body with him.

_~Oh? What do we have here?~_ A voice queried when Harry made the link.

_~Someone who is very reluctant to let you rifle through their mind.~_ Harry answered.

_~Well, now this is interesting. It is very rare that a child has strong enough Occlumency shields to deny me entry, but to actually reach out to me without physical contact is something really brand new. Hmm, for your information, there is an alternative way to sort students.~_ The hat told him.

_~And what's that?~_ Reinforce asked, piggybacking Harry's mental thread.

_~You don't sound like a student, miss, but I'm going to assume you're connected to the one who initiated this means of communication. Regardless, there is the interview process, but that method tends to take a little time. It's a series of questions and answers that resembles what a personality test would be like in the muggle world.~_ The hat was most definitely intrigued now, it barely paid attention to the heads it was sitting on and sorting while this conversation was going on.

_~ I see. You do know that, due to knowing the qualities of the four houses beforehand, I could give certain answers that would lead you to make the choice _I_ wanted, right?~_ Harry asked. The hall in general was surprised when the hat, not currently sat on anyone's head, let out a loud burst of laughter.

_~You're already narrowing it down for me, you know? So, what'll be? Do you want to join the ravens in their tower or the snakes in the dungeons?~_ The hat asked Harry, mentally chuckling. _~Who are you, anyway? You know that I will know soon enough, we're almost half way through the sorting already.~_

Harry and Reinforce considered it for a moment, bit it was true. As soon as the hat sat atop Harry's head, either it would break into his mind and read it, or Reinforce and he would be able to repel it. Either way, the hat would know who he was, so he might as well tell him now.

_~I would prefer to be amongst the ravens, the seekers of knowledge personally. No offence to those that thrive there, but politics isn't for me.~_ Harry told the hat. _~As for who I am, my name is Harry Potter and my companion is named Reinforce. That is all you need to know, and all that I'd tell you anyway.~_

_~Oh? Is that so? That is truly rather curious. Well, I suppose the interview process is now not necessary, I can see where to put you. By the way, I saw you in the mind of one Miss Greengrass, you made quite the favourable impression on her let me tell you. I'm curious as to what I'll see about you in Mister Zabini's as well.~ _The hat said.

Harry mentally groaned. _~ I already said that I'd rather avoid politics, though at least a 'favourable' impression is better than a bad one. Anyway, what happened to you not being allowed to talk about what is inside the heads of the students you sort?~_

Harry got the mental equivalent of a shrug from the hat. _~Technically speaking, I didn't tell you what was inside her head, just that you impressed her. If I want to, I can play around with the small print myself, I just choose not to... Oh! Now, this is interesting.~_

Harry looked up and saw that they'd gotten to Sally-Anne. _~Now, if you made a big impression on Miss Greengrass, it's nothing compared to this one. Hmm, normally I'd shunt someone like this off to Hufflepuff, but I think she might flourish better near to you in~_ "RAVENCLAW!" The hat called out. Sally-Anne then hurried off to the blue and bronze table amid their applause.

"Harry Potter!" Mcgonagall called out and, before people in the hall could start whispering about _the_ Harry Potter, and even before Harry could take a single step out of the line and up to the hat, it was already calling out his house.

"RAVENCLAW!" it called and the room went quiet. Harry shrugged his shoulders, before stepping out of line and heading off to sit next to Sally-Anne. He saw that she was at the end of the table and perched himself right at the end, the Entrance Hall on his left and Sally-Anne on his right.

_~You did that on purpose, didn't you?~_ Harry asked the hat.

_~Yep.~_ The hat telepathically replied, popping the 'P'.

"Excuse me, Sorting Hat, but young Harry hasn't even put you on yet, you can't sort him like that." Dumbledore spoke up amidst the silence. Once he did though, whispers began to break out amongst the students. Harry's ears twitched as he heard them start to talk about the 'Boy-Who-Lived', the most unusual sorting they'd ever seen, whether he _could_ be sorted without the sorting hat even touching him, why the sorting hat had done so, what it meant, and a million other things.

"Doesn't matter, he's a Ravenclaw now. That's the house for him and, as the sorting hat, I have final say, so there." The hat then, as best as it could, stuck its tongue out at Dumbledore. Harry looked on in bemusement at the childish display, hearing Reinforce's chuckles in his mind.

"Are you sure?" Albus asked.

"Yes, Albus, I am. I could have put him elsewhere, but I truly believe that where he is now is the right place for him to be." The sorting hat said. "Shall we get on with the sorting now, Minnie?" Harry was now sure, the sorting hat was having a bit of fun of its own. He supposed it was understandable, if the sorting hat was truly as old as the school and all it did was sort students, anything new and any opportunity for fun should be grasped with both hands... metaphorically speaking that is.

There was some choked laughter as the sorting hat called professor Mcgonagall Minnie, but it was soon swept aside as they sorted the last three people that were left. Lisa Turpin became a Ravenclaw like Harry and Sally-Anne, then it was the red-haired Weasley boy's turn.

_~I see that you feature in this boy's mind as well.~_ The sorting hat said to Harry. The telepathic link was being maintained by Harry and he hadn't cut it off yet, the sorting hat itself couldn't initiate telepathy any farther away than physical contact allowed.

_~Can I ask why?~_ Harry queried. _~I have not yet even spoke to the boy, what reason would he have for having me in his mind? I'm guessing it's for something other than the scene you just caused, otherwise I'm sure you wouldn't have even mentioned it.~_

_~Hmm, in general terms I can say that he was hoping to 'ride your tailcoats' I believe the phrase is. I'm actually having a little trouble over whether I should sort him into Gryffindor or Slytherin. He's brash and forward enough for the lions, and that is where he expects to go, but he also has more than enough ambition for the snakes, even if he is reluctant to put the effort in and is biased against that house. Hmm, I'll let you decide, where do you think he should go?~_ The hat cheerfully gave said duty of sorting a student over to Harry, making said boy's eyebrow twitch.

_~Can you really do that? I mean, _you_ are the sorting hat, not me.~_ Harry asked.

_~There's no rule against it, and the way the enchantments that made me work, as long as I'm the one that has the final decision, I actually can. Now, isn't that a fun little bit of trivia. Now, chop chop, this boy's starting to sweat and I'd rather not get any more on me than I absolutely have to.~_ The hat hurried him along.

_~Stick him in Gryffindor then. You said that he's biased against the snakes, so putting him in there would just cause an explosion, and I'm betting that someone would come out of it in little pieces, probably him.~_ Harry replied, mentally rolling his eyes.

After that, the only one left to sort was Blaise Zabini who was quickly made a Slytherin. The sorting hat did mutter to Harry about how that was another person he'd made an impression on, but he mostly ignored it. After that, Mcgonagall rolled up the list of names she'd been reading and carried the hat out of the hall.

Harry was hard pressed to keep a straight face as his telepathy picked up on the hat's comments as it was carried through the school. 'Here is where Rowena fell out of the window and was left hanging upside down, her knickers on show' was one such comment, 'And isn't this the staircase with the vanishing step that Salazar put there to prank Godric?' was another, all of the way up to the Headmaster's tower, 'Poor Helga, she could never keep her balance on these revolving stairs', and to where he was put away on a shelf.

Harry missed most of what the Headmaster said when he stood up, but Reinforce, listening through his ears, did tell him about Dumbledore's odd words of wisdom. Harry didn't really know what to make of it, but it was obviously said for a specific purpose. Whether that purpose was to make people laugh and break the tension, to look like a bit of a crackpot or something else, Harry couldn't tell.

That said, both Reinforce and Harry were surprised by the teleporting food. They could tell it was teleported because there was a tiny dimensional distortion just before the food appeared. They were both rather surprised to see such a thing used for something as mundane as placing food on the table, but that's what happened.

There was a great variety of food on the tables, but Harry noticed that it was all... rather heavy. Having Reinforce's memories of what her previous master had liked, Harry had experimented with eastern dishes back when he was at the Dursleys, and they all also liked the food and Petunia used Harry's cooked meals to brag about 'her' skills in the kitchen to the neighbours, and he preferred that kind of thing over British fayre.

He had some of the vegetables available, things like peas, carrots, boiled potatoes, parsnip and so on, but had little meat, just a bit of pork, because one thing about British food that Harry couldn't get enough of was pork crackling, and that was it.

Harry fended off curious questions from his house mates, glad that there weren't many nearby to ask him questions. One bad thing about being sorted into Ravenclaw was that it was the house of the curious, and the ones who searched for answers, so they would undoubtedly ask him things he didn't want to answer with all of the tact of a rampaging rhinoceros.

Dessert appeared after the main courses had disappeared, and Harry had some ice-cream. He had several different flavours, getting a scoop each of the ones closest to him, and enjoying it immensely. At the Dursleys, he hadn't ever had dessert before, even if he had been fed semi-properly, and Florean Fortescue's ice-cream parlour had become a favourite place of his during his stay at the Leaky Cauldron.

Harry let his eyes rove across the teacher's table at the far end of the hall. Mcgonagall caught him looking and inclined her head his way, before she continued on with her conversation with another witch that Harry didn't know. Dumbledore also saw him looking and gave him a twinkly-eyed look back, before Harry's eyes moved onto the next in line.

Professor Quirrel, the one that Harry thought was scared of his own shadow, was talking to a man with lank, greasy hair, a hooked nose and sallow skin. Harry had to look twice to realise this was the same Severus Snape that he'd once asked a few questions of in the Apothecary down Diagon Alley. He looked rather different right now, but that may have something to do with his expression more than anything.

Harry caught Snape's eye and found the older man glaring right at him with undisguised loathing, but for what reason, he didn't know. Harry felt a sharp pain in his forehead and a flash of silver hair and red eyes appeared in his head, before Snape jerked back as if struck.

_~He just tried to access your mind, Harry.~_ Reinforce told him. _~It took me a little by surprise, but I forced him out straight away, he saw no more than you did. I really think we're going to have to work on you keeping him out by yourself and me bolstering your defences, rather than leaving it solely up to me to handle.~_

_~Yeah.~_ Harry replied. _~Why did he try it, though? Surely it can't be legal to invade someone's mind like that, can it? And the look of absolute disgust and loathing on his face... I don't think that we're going to get along too well. I think it's going to be a good idea to make sure I know my potions stuff thoroughly and not give him a reason to try anything.~_ He sighed.

Reinforce agreed with him and the two waited for the feast to be over. When it was, Dumbledore gave a few notices out. The Forbidden Forest was forbidden... duh! No magic between classes sounded like the magic version of no running with scissors. Quidditch trials were mentioned as well, not that Harry was interested. Up in the air and on a broom, Harry's hair would be all over the place and his scarred left side would be on full display, not something he wanted at all.

Harry had no problem with risking people seeing his scarred, melted and disfigured side, as long as it was in combat or something, but for a sport? No way. He was trying to learn a basic glamour that would make it look like normal skin, even if it was only temporary and his eye colour would still be red, but it was still too complicated for him to do.

The last announcement that Dumbledore gave made Harry sit up and pay attention. What sort of idiot gives a warning of 'dying a very painful death' to a bunch of inquisitive school children whose first reaction would probably be to go and take a peek. Harry knew that he was curious enough himself to go and take a look, and a glance around the hall showed he probably wasn't alone in thinking that way.

Oh well, Que sera sera and all of that stuff. Harry was all ready to head off to the dormitories and take a nap, but then Dumbledore sprung a surprise on them, a school song. Now, Harry _really_ didn't think that was the school song. I mean, come on! What sort of official song has lyrics like 'Hoggy Warty Hogwarts'? Was it Dumbledore himself who came up with that? It sounded mental enough to attach to the man who was even now smiling at the nonsensical wall of noise that was everyone in the entire hall singing to a different tune, if they even had a tune to begin with.

Now that the feast was over, the Ravenclaw first years followed the female fifth year prefect, Penelope Clearwater, out of the hall and up the stairs. Penelope led them up what she called 'the primary route' to the tower, saying that the castle shifted about so much that there was probably an infinite number of ways to get from one point to another within the castle.

That piqued Harry's and Reinforce's interest. Maybe it was a defensive feature, from back when the castle may have been attacked by outside invaders. A castle that constantly switched layout would confuse people that managed to get inside and split them up, making it easier for defenders to take them out.

The portraits and paintings they saw were also curious in and of themselves. The people in them were acting as if they were alive, and didn't seem to be stuck in their own frame, easily moving into their neighbour's paintings when they wanted to move about.

Several vanishing steps, secret passageways and moving staircases later, Penelope led them up a spiral staircase on the fifth floor that ended up at a wall. There was a door set into the wall, but Harry saw no door handle, knob or keyhole. What was there was a bronze knocker in the shape of an eagle.

The beak of the eagle moved and it asked a question. "There were five men going to a funeral when it began to rain. Four men ran, and they got wet. One man stayed where he was, and he remained dry. Tell me, what happened here?"

The first years looked at each other and Penelope furrowed a brow as she thought. Harry sighed a little, he had worked it out. He spoke up, and the others, excepting Sally-Anne, jumped at hearing his hoarse and rasping voice for the first time. "The four men that got wet were the ones bearing the coffin, the one that stayed dry was the dead man in said coffin."

"Correct, young mage knight." Harry blinked at that, did it call him a mage knight? It was true that, traditionally, the practitioners of Ancient Belkan magic were referred to as knights, and modern Mid-Childan magic users were called mages, but how would this door knocker know that and why would it call him such?

Regardless, the door opened and they were let in, a few people giving Harry curious looks due to what the door knocker had said. Before they were all sent of to bed, Penelope spoke up. "As you've just seen, our house does not actually have a password. Instead, we get asked a riddle. If you cannot answer the riddle, you will have to wait for the next person to come along before you can get into the tower. Now, I'm sure you're all tired so boys go through that door and girls through that one to get to your dormitories." She indicated the two doors as she spoke.

"Now, curfew is at ten. That means that you have to be in the common room by then, and you are not allowed out of the tower until half past five the next morning. Tomorrow morning, first thing. Professor Flitwick will give you an introduction to Ravenclaw house, as he is our head of house. Good night everyone and I'll see you in the morning." She said, ushering the first years through the doors and up the stairs.

Harry and the five other male Ravenclaw first years, climbed the stairs to their room, which appropriately had a sign reading 'First Years' on the door. They entered to find that their trunks were already here at the bottom of their beds. Deciding to get to know his room mates in the morning, Harry hurriedly changed, making sure his face wasn't seen, and got into bed.

He pulled the curtains around the four poster bed closed and settled in to sleep. He could see through the curtains the silhouettes of the other boys and, when they had all gotten into bed as well, Reinforce appeared next to Harry. She enjoyed comfort just as much as anyone else and, just like at the Dursleys and the Leaky Cauldron, she had no issue with sharing a bed with Harry.

Harry liked it too and the pair of them snuggled up together and got some sleep. They would wake early, which was normal for them, so that Harry could do some exercises and find somewhere secluded to practise his magic before he jumped head first into the Wizarding World.


	6. Let Lessons Begin

AN: And another one. Jeez, I'm averaging two plus chapters a day here and I'm not running out of steam or ideas. I guess there's a small part of me that just wants to get first year over with and onto the interesting stuff. Summer between first and second year is going to be very different to canon, and so is second year probably. Not so sure about third year yet, but we'll see, and fourth year is when the Nanoha cast starts turning up properly before Nanoha and Fate attend Hogwarts for fifth year.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 6 – Let Lessons Begin

The next morning, Harry woke bright and early at five o'clock. He left Reinforce to sleep a little longer as he slid out of bed and began to get himself clean and awake. He retrieved some workout clothes from his trunk, plain black like everything else Harry had chosen, and headed down to the common room.

By the time half past five had come round, Reinforce was also awake and she returned to inside of his body as he left the tower. He eventually, making many wrong turns and mistakes on the way, made his way outside and began to exercise his body.

He ran laps around the Quidditch pitch, did push-ups and sit ups and stretches as well. He finished off with a quick swim in the black lake before heading back indoors. He shook off most of his wetness and decided that a shower would be a great thing about then.

As it turned out, he came across professor Flitwick when he got close to the Ravenclaw tower again. Flitwick took one look at him, quickly deduced what he'd been up to, said he approved of his physical workout and awarded him ten points for it. Harry shrugged, not really caring about the points, and walked at Flitwick's side for the rest of the journey to the tower.

Flitwick did ask him why he wore his hair so that it covered half of his face, but Harry just told him it was for personal reasons and Flitwick left him alone. The small professor did say that there were no actual rules against it, and one metamorphmagus who had just graduated had taken advantage of that and had her hair a different colour and style every day of the month.

When they got to the door knocker, Flitwick answered the riddle this time. Thankfully, it didn't identify him as a mage knight this time, but he was sure that piece of information wouldn't remain a secret for very long. Once inside, Flitwick said that Harry had enough time to get a shower and changed before he began his introduction, so Harry went off to do just that.

Harry, now wearing black jeans, shirt, boots and school robes, returned to the common room. He might have been a little damp, his hair especially, but it didn't much matter. There was a third year spell, a drying charm, that Harry had his eye on learning that would mean his hair would never have to see an electric hair-dryer again.

The rest of the house filtered into the room before long, Sally-Anne taking up a stand right next to him. There were subtle indications in her body language that said she was more relaxed than she had been the previous night, but she was still getting closer to him because he was the most familiar one around.

"Right, are we all here?" Flitwick asked. The extremely short man was stood on top of a platform that looked to have been specially made for him. "We are? Good. Now, to my second years and above, welcome back. To my first years, welcome. This speech is more for our new ravens than the rest of you, but you can stay and listen if you want to."

No one actually left, and Harry thought that said something about Flitwick himself. The short man, no matter what his teaching was like, was obviously well liked by his own house, as could be seen from the easy smiles of the students around him. He seemed fairly approachable and, if his reputation was to be believed, he was highly skilled as well.

"I believe the prefect that led you here yesterday probably told you this already but, just in case, I'll say it again. Our common room does not have a password, but we must answer a riddle to gain entry. If you can't answer the riddle, you'll have to wait for someone to come along who can answer it. This is supposed to keep our minds sharp and active, so please don't be caught off guard by it." The room in general nodded their heads or made some sign or noise of acknowledgement.

"The castle also shifts about quite a bit and you can find yourself going up a set of stairs on the sixth floor and coming out in the dungeons. There _is _a kind of core part of the castle that doesn't change and maps are available for you to look at if you want them, I'd advise you to do so most definitely." More nods again.

"Now, onto more serious things. I cannot enforce this, but I would strongly recommend that everyone here gets checked out by Madam Pomfrey in the hospital wing within the next few weeks. Nothing particularly invasive or extreme, just a general health check-up. This is more important for muggle-borns, because she can give you the booster potions that all magical children should receive in order to vaccinate them against certain illnesses. Even if you know you've already had those potions, getting checked up couldn't hurt." Harry thought that a rather sensible thing and determined to see the school nurse as soon as possible, precautions were always better than cures after all.

"I also have a meeting with all of my students once a month. There will be a notice going up on the noticeboard of when your appointments are, they're usually on the weekends, to keep me up to date with all of you. If any of you have any worries, however, you can always come and see me in my office, don't feel like you have to wait for your next appointment to come round." Flitwick told them. "Now, I have some timetables to hand out."

Once said timetables were given out, Harry looked at his. It seemed that they primarily had their lessons with either the Gryffindors or the Slytherins, with only History of Magic with the Hufflepuffs. Stephen Cornfoot, one of Harry's year mates, raised his hand. "Professor Flitwick, I thought that that Ravenclaw normally shared most of their lessons with Hufflepuff."

Flitwick nodded. "That used to be so. However, there is quite a... rivalry between those two houses. It was thought that keeping those two houses separate might ease tensions a bit and make teaching easier. Headmaster Dumbledore explained this in a staff meeting last night. Apparently, professor Snape thought that this years first years in Gryffindor and Slytherin were especially volatile."

Harry narrowed his eyes. While what Flitwick said made sense, and was in line with what he'd heard about the houses, it was far too convenient. The Gryffindor and Slytherin rivalry was legendary, or so it would seem from what Harry had heard, and timetables were only being changed last night? That was simply too much of a coincidence to ignore.

xxxxx

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to that shy-looking girl over there."

"Did you see his face?"

"Did you see his scar? I know I haven't."

"Why do you think he wears his hair like that?"

"Dunno. Do you know why there's a silver streak in it?"

Whispers, questions and comments followed Harry from the moment he left the common room. Sally-Anne was shaking like a leaf from all of the attention just standing next to Harry brought her. Harry did put one hand on her to calm her down, which she seemed to appreciate, but that didn't stop the voices.

Harry was finding it very unnerving and very irritating as well. He wasn't a damn animal in a zoo, he wasn't there for them to gawk at and he most definitely wasn't there for them to poke and prod to try and get him to do something. Honestly, if even one of them believed that he couldn't clearly hear what they were saying then they were complete bloody idiots.

Reinforce did send him soothing thoughts as she was getting slightly wound up by proxy, due to being linked to Harry like she was. Loki also helped, flying to him at breakfast and eating some of the stuff that Harry offered him, sometimes stealing some from someone else as well.

Harry thought he'd had the right of it when he'd named the raven Loki, he really was quite the mischievous little bugger. Once he'd stolen something from someone, he would adopt as innocent a look as a bird could manage and Harry could almost see the sparkles around his eyes as his look seemed to just cry out at you 'Who, me?'

Harry was very damn grateful for something like that which could make him smile. Everything else in the castle seemed to be dead set on wiping that smile off his face. It was very frustrating trying to find your way around a castle that kept changing, especially one as large as Hogwarts was. There were one hundred and forty two staircases in Hogwarts. Some of them were wide and sweeping, others narrow and rickety, and still more that led to a different place depending on the day of the week or what time it was or some other random variable that Harry had yet to figure out.

He was also pretty damn sure that some of the secret passageways warped space to some degree. There was almost no other explanation as to how one could go from the seventh floor on the west side to the first floor on the east side in less than twenty seconds, a journey that really should have taken somewhere around ten minutes due to all of the twisting passageways between the two points.

After that, there were the lessons themselves. They had to take notes on various magical theories that, more often than not, contradicted each other and the teachers passed it off as 'Oh, this one only applies to curses, that one applies to jinxes' or 'It is what it is, if it works then it works, what does it matter why it works'.

They'd already had their first astronomy lesson, and professor Sinistra had been almost drooling over Harry's telescope. When he'd told her that he'd simply bought a muggle one and had the regular enchantments added to it, she'd looked flabbergasted, as if something so simple had never occurred to her before.

Of course, with Reinforce assisting him, it wasn't like Harry really _needed_ the telescope to look at the stars. The Unison Device knew far more about the celestial bodies they were observing than even Earth scientists did. Of course, when he'd slipped up and added in something that was perhaps a bit _too_ much information, he'd merely gotten a curious look from professor Sinistra and ten points.

Three times a week, they went out to the greenhouses to study plants in Herbology. This was one subject that Harry was decidedly bad at. It wasn't that Harry didn't know his stuff, he could explain the different properties of all of the plants he'd so far come across, but the plants really didn't seem to like him. It had been a bit unexpected when a flitter-bloom bush had actually cringed away from him when he'd went to trim it.

Harry's hopes for learning about interesting things in History of Magic were dashed. Professor Binns was probably the most boring person Harry had ever encountered, he could literally talk the class to sleep. Harry had checked as well, and he'd found that the History text book was word for word what Binns was saying. Either someone had stayed awake long enough to copy down what Binns was saying, or Binns was merely reciting the set text over and over again, year in and year out.

Professor Flitwick was an enthusiastic little teacher, and his enthusiasm seemed to infect the class and make them all happy and smiley too. The first lesson with him had been primarily theory, but he had said that they would be starting on practicals in a short while.

Professor Mcgonagall was, again, different from all of the other professors he'd so far had. She was strict and professional, and she'd also given her class a talking to in their very first lesson. It made her seem unapproachable, and Harry was rather glad he wasn't in her house, even if they did share the class with the Gryffindors.

"Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts." She had said. "Anyone found messing around in my class will be thrown out and I will not allow them back." She nailed everyone to their seats with a stern look. "You have been warned."

After that, she'd turned her desk into a pig and back again. Harry's and Reinforce's minds were still trying to work out how this subject worked. It seemed to be some sort of molecular reconfiguration, but there was more to it than that. Small things could be turned into large things, large things into small things and, as they'd just been shown, non-living things could be turned into living beings.

It just did not make any sense to them and broke the rules of magic as they both knew them. They'd read through and copied down the notes that Mcgonagall had placed on the board, but that didn't really help them understand it any better. The notes were on pronunciation, wand movements and intent, not how the hell the bloody subject actually worked.

They were given match sticks to turn into needles. Having practised during the summer, even if he still didn't understand _how_ it worked, Harry got it on his first try. That earned him yet more points from the professor and a glare from a certain bushy-haired Gryffindor girl called, Hermione Granger.

Granger, it seemed, liked to be the best, and didn't like other people doing better than she did. Harry had noticed her angry looks whenever he accomplished something before she did. He'd also noticed that she, like himself, was frequently in the library.

The difference was in what they were studying. Granger seemed to have piles of textbooks for each subject and was devouring them at an incredible rate, while Harry had more obscure books out. He was looking up various magical theories and seeing how they fit with the magic systems he knew.

Both Ancient Belkan and Mid-Childan magic were similar. The differences were that Mid-Childan style spells tended to primarily be longer in range, primarily shooting and bombardment attacks, and use a circle as the base. Belkan magic, on the other hand, tended to use close combat attacks and used a triangle as a base.

Having examined Harry's wand closely, Harry and Reinforce were both still stumped. There was no way that you could use a wand as a device, but it worked as a Wizarding magical focus. Whereas Belkan and Mid-Childan magic was focused and mathematical, Wizarding magic was more about roughly shaping raw mana into a form that reflected the caster's desire.

Wand movements and incantations, it turned out, were not actually necessary, but made spells easier to use. This was apparently because repetition was a form of ritual, and rituals tended to get them the results they wanted. That still didn't make much sense to Reinforce and Harry, so the pair of them kept reading through more and more advanced books of magical theory.

A side effect of reading up on all of that theory was that Harry was advancing quite rapidly through his classes in Wizarding Magic. Of course, practising spells before the lesson where they were taught was going to mean he got better results, but that was just how things were. Harry's homework did still take him a little time, but he always finished it as soon as he got it so as not to let it pile up.

xxxxx

"You're going to have to decide what sort of mage you want to be soon." Reinforce said to Harry when they were practising with his Belkan magic. He'd just managed to get four Bloody Daggers summoned and fired and was now trying to learn to conjure five of them.

"Oh, what do you mean?" Harry asked, leaning his back against a tree. The two of them were a little ways away from the castle and around a corner, so they wouldn't get seen. The black lake was close to them as well, the edge of the Forbidden Forest too.

"You need to develop a style of combat. The styles include bombardment specialist, speed specialist, close quarters specialist and so on. There is also the differentiation between ground and air force to consider as well. I'm guessing you'll be a flier though, especially considering the way you keep crashing." Reinforce teased him about his limited success with flight spells.

Harry growled lightly back, but there was no heat in it. Perhaps the fact that he was rubbing his head from where he'd crashed right into a tree had something to do with it, but Reinforce couldn't help but laugh at him. Harry pouted and Reinforce pulled him into a hug.

"You want me to develop my own combat style, do you?" Harry asked. "Wouldn't something like that depend on how much mana I have available? I mean, you can hardly be a bombardment mage if you've only got enough mana for one blast, right?"

Reinforce bit her lip. "Harry, your reserves of mana are absolutely huge. I think it's a side effect of out first unison, but I could well have influenced how much mana you have to draw on. Back then, when I first unisoned with you, you began to collapse and I tried to stabilise you as best I could from the inside. Now, with your reserves, you could use bombardment magic constantly for days at a time and not get tired. You still need control though, that's one of the most major reasons that I've had you doing meditation exercises."

Harry nodded. "I see. Also, without a device, I am really limited. I know there are people who can do incredible magic completely without a device, but I need to learn more before I get anywhere near to that point. My four Bloody Daggers might look impressive, but even the weakest mage would smack me around like a tennis ball right now."

"So, any thoughts?" Reinforce asked, making Harry chuckle.

"Actually, I guess there is something that I like the sound of. Your stories about Hayate and her Wolkenritter really appealed to me, a group of people working together to cover each others weaknesses and protect each others backs. That right there is something that I would absolutely love to have. I guess that I could learn a few close range and a few long range spells, but I'm currently leaning towards being a support mage." Harry explained.

"Hmm, I see." Reinforce muttered quietly, getting lost in memories of the Wolkenritter. "You know, the Wolkenritter were once real people that got absorbed by the book for one reason or another. Signum was a knight so loyal to the book's master that she was absorbed into it, making it so that she would never leave his side. Shamal was the aunt of another master, a healer whose family had been killed and swore to look after her charge. Vita was an accident, the child of a master that left the tome lying around where she got her hands on it and accidentally got dragged in. Zafira was the only one purposely made for the tome. He was a familiar designed specifically to fight, he called himself a 'Guardian Beast' and it as something he once took a great amount of pride in."

At this point, Harry's raven joined them. Harry looked at Loki and smiled. Reinforce, seeing who had turned up, smiled as well. "You know, if you actually do turn Loki into a familiar, there is one step further you could go. The Guardian Knight system that I separated from myself before my... before my death has returned to me, but it is now blank. Loki could fill in one of those blank spaces if you really wanted him to."

Harry looked at her curiously. "What would that mean?" He asked, wondering about what sort of advantages and disadvantages such a thing would have.

Reinforce shrugged. "As your Knight, Loki would be entirely dependant on you as his life source. Of course, if you turned him into a familiar, that would be true regardless. However, if Loki were to die before you, it would be possible for you to resurrect him using the record in the Guardian Knight system." Reinforce informed him. "It is also true, however, that if I ever got a different master, Loki would follow me to them as well. Binding someone as a Guardian Knight is not something to be done lightly, but think about it anyway."

"I'll keep it in mind." Harry replied, smiling at the thought of his very own, self built family.

Loki seemed to perk up, sensing something, and then flew off. Reinforce and Harry watched him go, before returning to discussions on magic. They started talking about the animagus transformation, and what similarities it held to Yuuno Scrya's ability to turn into a ferret.

From what Reinforce knew of the process, it sounded very similar to what was described in the book Harry had bought. Harry, having heard of a ten year old being able to do it, decided that he wanted to at least attempt it himself. There were some herbs that he'd ordered that you were supposed to burn and inhale while meditating that was supposed to speed the process along and Harry was going to try meditating for the first time that night.

He wondered what his animagus form would be, and he hoped it was a bird of some description due to his desire to fly. Maybe Reinforce would be able to learn it too, and then the both of them could go flying with Loki and have so much fun.

Harry didn't really know how to describe the relationship he had with Reinforce. Their physical ages were definitely different, he being eleven and her permanently having the body of someone around twenty years old. She comforted him when he was sad and he listened to her stories, comforting her when he heard the tone of longing in her voice.

They slept in the same bed, and had done since Reinforce had become part of Harry's life, wrapped in each others arms, but that was now normal for them. Reinforce knew things about Harry that he'd never told, and would never tell, anyone else. In return, Harry knew things about Reinforce that she probably wouldn't be telling other people too.

"So, what did you think of Defence Against the Dark Arts this morning?" Reinforce eventually asked him, breaking the silence. Harry blinked up at her, a little drowsily as he had been going to sleep leaning against her side. He had to kick-start his brain to remember what she'd asked before replying.

"His stutter is fake, I can tell that much. His classroom and turban smell strongly of garlic, but I think that's because it's there to cover up an even worse smell. He's got secrets that have him trying to appear to be an ineffectual fool and useless, but what it is I don't know. Simply put, I don't trust him." Harry told her.

Reinforce laughed lightly. "You don't really trust anyone, so that's not a surprise. I am, in fact, very surprised with how quickly you opened up to that Sally-Anne girl. Do we have a little burgeoning romance going on here?" She asked teasingly, but didn't get the reply she was expecting.

There was no blushing or instant denial, but merely a quirked eyebrow, a twitch of his lips and a shake of his head. "No, I don't have any romantic feelings towards Sally-Anne Perks." Harry said plainly, making Reinforce pout cutely. "I am willing to help her open up though, I know that she and Entwhistle have started talking quite a bit recently."

"Entwhistle, Entwhistle, which one is that again?" Reinforce asked.

Harry just snorted. "I know you know who I'm on about. Entwhistle is that one who's always hiding behind a book and keeps taking peeks over the top of it at her when he thinks no one's looking. He's a bit young to have a crush but what the heck, puppy love and all of that stuff isn't something I'm well versed in."

Reinforce was about to say something else when Loki returned. He had a few feathers out of place and a letter in one claw. Harry turned to ask Reinforce something but found that she'd disappeared back inside his body. He blinked in surprise and took the letter from the raven.

_Dear Harry_

_I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three? I knew your parents when they were students themselves and I've got more than a few stories that might tickle your fancy. I'd like to hear about your first week too. Send us a letter back with Loki here, he'll find me no matter where I am._

_Hagrid_

_~Reinforce?~_ Harry asked, wondering if Loki's appearance is what had spooked her back into hiding inside himself.

_~Yes, Harry? Oh, if you're wondering why I disappeared, it's because of the charms now on Loki. I'm getting better at understanding what different spells feel like, even if I can't tell similar ones apart, and those on him have a similar feel to tracking charms.~_ She said.

Harry sighed. _~Okay, that's a little invasive. Can you remove them?~_ He asked.

_~No, I can't. I don't understand the structure of Wizarding spells well enough to do so yet. We did read up on that one spell though, 'Finite Incantatum' but we haven't practised it. Maybe we can practise with it by trying to dispel the charms on Loki? I might not be able to undo them, but I can sure as hell tell whether they're still there or not.~_ Reinforce suggested.

Harry drew his wand and looked at it for a moment, before looking at his raven. "Do you trust me to try this?" He asked. As he had suspected, the raven was intelligent enough to know what he was talking about and nodded. Maybe Harry was just bad at interpreting bird expressions or something, but Harry thought Loki looked furious at what had happened to him.

xxxxx

_~It wasn't that bad.~_

_~I set his tail feathers ON FIRE! Of course it was bad!~_

_~You got rid of the tracking charms~_

_~Yes, by burning off the feathers the charms were attached too!~_

Harry and Reinforce argued in a friendly manner as Harry headed down to his potions lesson in the dungeons. Why such a subject was taught in a poorly ventilated, mildewy, damp and cold place like that, Harry really didn't know. He also wouldn't be surprised if the environment affected the ingredients and potions in some way.

"Ah, yes." Snape said when he reached Harry's name on the register. "Harry Potter, our new... celebrity."

Harry and Sally-Anne were partnered together in this lesson, Blaise was with Theodore Nott and Daphne was with Tracey Davis. Harry knew for a fact that both Draco Malfoy and Ronald Weasley were trying to corner him when he was alone for some reason, but he hadn't given either of them that opportunity. Still, he could feel Malfoy's gaze burning a hole into his back right then.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making." Snape said to them, making Harry's ears prick up like a dog's. Snape had just said the magical (Well, rather the opposite actually) word, science. Maybe potions was something that Harry could finally attribute some logic to, unlike every other branch of magic he'd thus far encountered.

"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe that this is magic. I don't really expect you will understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death." Snape spoke softly, he didn't really need to raise his voice as he had the attention of the entire class on him. "That is, of course, if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach." And just like that, the spell was broken, leaving the class reeling slightly from the venom in his tone.

"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Snape snapped out all of a sudden. Harry considered it for a moment and thought about the properties of both ingredients. He then cast his mind back to the section of his potions book on sleeping draughts.

He got it after just a few seconds. "A powerful sleeping potion, one named the Draught of Living Death, sir." He said. Just like everyone else hearing him speak for the first time, Snape was taken aback by the harshness in his voice. He looked at Harry with a look that made it feel like he was under a microscope.

"Tell me, where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar, Potter?" Snape asked again.

Harry knew this one immediately. "It's a stone taken from the stomach of a ruminant animal such as a goat. It is also on the health and safety list in the potions textbook because, despite being rather rare compared to antidotes, it can cure the majority of all poisons."

Snape nodded and gave Harry that look again. "True, true. Now, try answering me this. What is the difference between monkshood and wolfs-bane?"

Harry thought about that and his mind flickered through his copy of _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_. "I do believe that they are the same thing. Muggles also call that plant aconite, if I remember correctly." He said, watching as Snape nodded again, before spinning and walking over to the board.

Hmm... wait one god damned minute! If one applies the language of flowers to Snape's questions then it comes out as 'I bitterly regret Lily's death'. Was that done on purpose? Snape _is_ the right age to have gone to school with his parents, maybe he knew his mother? If that was the case, were the questions a coincidence or did he not know that both Lily and James Potter still lived?

Snape had tapped the board with his wand, on it were now the instructions to create a simple potion to cure boils. Harry checked through the instructions, finding two steps that differed from the textbook. Hmm, was that there on purpose to make them fail, or was it an improvement like the ones Tom at the Leaky Cauldron had told him about?

Deciding to risk it, and if it did go wrong he could claim that he was just following the instructions that Snape had left him, Harry set about preparing all of the ingredients for the potion. Several times, he felt Snape's gaze on him as he meticulously measured out all of the ingredients as accurately as he could, letting Sally-Anne add them to the potion and stir it.

At the end of the rather quiet lesson, Snape asked for a sample from everyone to be handed in to him for marking. Harry and Sally-Anne handed theirs in, but Harry also bottled up all of the spare potion in their cauldron. Hey, it was better than it going to waste after all, and there was still a lot left in there.

As it was now the afternoon, and he had it completely free, Harry decided to take Hagrid up on his offer of tea. Sally-Anne, whom Harry told about it, also came along with him. So, at ten to three, the two of them, along with Reinforce inside Harry's body and Loki on his shoulder, headed off to the Gamekeepers hut on the grounds.


	7. Hagrid and Flying

AN: Hey there, I have a question for the readers. What do you guys think of possibly making this story either Harry/Reinforce or Harry/Hayate? Opinions and_ REASONS_would be greatly appreciated. Now, I don't think I have a lot to say here, but I will put that there's now a thread on my forum (as well as a sub-category) just for this story for those who are interested.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 7 – Hagrid and Flying

Harry was trying to appease Loki, who had a few burn marks on his feathers still, and Sally-Anne looked at them in amusement. She was starting to come out of her shell a little, she was beginning to talk to people other than Harry. She was going to be joining the other Ravenclaw first years for a study session after she'd went to Hagrid's with Harry.

Harry wasn't going to be joining that study session. Apart from already having completed all of his homework, he was trying to get on with his own projects. Reinforce had him meditating regularly, so he would find it easier to learn Occlumency and the Animagus transformation.

Reinforce and Harry were also curious whether they could create some sort of primitive device using wizard magic, but things weren't looking very good on that front. Wands and Devices were completely different, to the point of being incompatible with each other's spells.

The two of them didn't take long to reach Hagrid's hut, out near the Forbidden Forest, and Harry shrugged before he knocked on the door. He was wondering why Hagrid had asked him to visit, it wasn't like Harry was the only person who'd had parents at Hogwarts that Hagrid had known.

At Harry's knock, there had been a frantic scrabbling from inside as well as several booming barks. It seemed like Hagrid had a dog, Harry didn't really like dogs due to having some bad memories of Marge's dogs. Hagrid's voice did call out, probably to the dog, and he pulled the dog away from the door as he opened it to see who had come a calling.

"Ah, Harry! Come in, come in. Who's your friend here?" He asked, gesturing into his hut as he stepped back to let them in. Harry ducked his head and thanked Hagrid for offering to let him visit. He looked around the hut, taking in the hams and pheasants hanging from the roof, the copper kettle that hung over the fire, the absolutely massive bed covered with a patchwork quilt in the corner... and Ronald Weasley who was sat at the table.

"This is Sally-Anne, I met her on the train." Harry told Hagrid, keeping his eyes on Weasley. "If you already have guests, I could come back another time." He said, not making any move to sit down. Hagrid looked at Harry, then at Weasley, his brow furrowing in confusion.

"This here is Ron Weasley, he's from a good family." Hagrid told him bluntly, as if it was all that mattered. Harry had to stop himself from raising an eyebrow at that, Hagrid really didn't know the meaning of the word 'subtle', did he?

"Oh, really?" Harry asked blandly.

"Yeah, my family have been in Gryffindor for generations. There's no bloody Slytherins in my family." Ron spoke up. Harry was surprised that he wasn't eating whatever was in front of him, he _had_ seen what Weasley was like in the Great Hall at mealtimes.

Then again, what Hagrid had cooked didn't exactly look the most appetizing. Harry was pretty certain that scones, if that's what they were, weren't supposed to have patches of fur on them. Harry decided, there and then, to not eat anything that Hagrid had cooked.

"Is there something wrong with being in Slytherin?" Harry asked lightly.

"Yeah, they're all evil." Ron grinned at Harry. "Stick with me, mate, and I'll show you who the right sort are." He said. Harry sighed and leaned against the wall, thinking about how exactly he should respond to that statement.

"So, you're saying that each house conforms solely to their stereotypes? That means that Slytherins are 'evil', Hufflepuffs are 'duffers', Ravenclaws are 'nerds' and Gryffindors are 'idiots'." Harry raised one eyebrow at them. "Is that really what you think? As I recall Merlin was sorted into Slytherin, was he not? Are you saying that Merlin was evil? Albus Dumbledore was a Gryffindor, are you saying he's not intelligent? Uric the Oddball, famous for his eccentric habits, was a Ravenclaw. Bridget Wenlock, a famous Arithmancer, was a Hufflepuff. Was she a duffer?" Harry asked.

"That's different." Weasley said. "All of the Slytherins now are evil. If You-Know-Who was still around, they'd all join his bloody death eaters." The redhead folded his arms. "I mean, come on, you don't really think you can make friends with _Malfoy_ of all people, do you?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Malfoy is not the only person in Slytherin, nor should he define the house as a whole. You know, the possibility exists that you could have ended up in Slytherin yourself, do you not have ambitions you wish to fulfil?." He said lightly, earning him confused looks from Sally-Anne and Hagrid, and a wince from Weasley.

Eventually, they all calmed down and Sally-Anne took a seat opposite Ronald Weasley. Harry remained leaning against the wall, Loki on his shoulder, Hagrid sat on a large chair that was obviously designed for him, and Fang settled his head in Weasley's lap.

Hagrid did seem rather interested in Harry's raven, and he knew a surprising amount about such an everyday and common bird. He said that he tended to all of the animals that ended up injured, not just the owls, so he had some experience with ravens.

They spoke about their first week of school, how the classes went and what the teachers were like. Weasley had a number of uncomplimentary things to say about professor Snape, but what he said _did_ match up with the rumours going round about the head of Slytherin.

Hagrid did grumble about Filch and Mrs Norris, the caretaker and his cat. Personally, Harry didn't see how one man could actually keep the castle clean, and if he didn't then what did his job actually consist of? There were several people who Harry didn't understand how they were employed full time.

Madame Hooch was the flying instructor and the standard referee for Quidditch matches, but since only first years took flying lessons and then only once, what did she do with all of her time? Considering that Mcgonagall held the positions of Transfiguration professor, head of Gryffindor house _and_ deputy headmistress, it made you wonder why there was such an imbalance there.

Harry listened as the other three talked, hearing about Weasley's older brother Charlie, a dragon handler apparently, as well as the twin Weasleys who were apparently pranksters. Sally-Anne mentioned her muggle parents and their jobs, Hagrid talked about the creatures he looked after, and Harry even contributed a little, mentioning his own fascination with Norse and Egyptian mythology.

Looking around the place, Harry realised that Hagrid's hut was, surprisingly, exactly as big on the inside as one would expect. After seeing how abused space expansion charms were in the shops down Diagon Alley were, and how easily they seemed to be cast, Harry had expected pretty much everywhere to be magically expanded.

Harry's eye was caught by a newspaper clipping. The date on it was from a few weeks ago, making Harry wonder why it was still lying around. He took a look at it, wondering what it was about, and read through the clipping.

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of dark wizards or witches unknown.

Gringotts' goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.

'But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

Harry thought back to his birthday. That had been the day that he'd bought Loki, as a kind of birthday present for himself. Reinforce had also given him a kind of present by trying to teach him some of the more advanced magic she knew. The fact that it had been... less than successful was beside the point, it had given him something knew to play with.

That had also been the day that Harry had first seen both Hagrid himself and professor Quirrel. Hmm, the vault had been emptied, had it? Had Hagrid been the one to empty it? The gamekeeper had been there on 'important business for Dumbledore' apparently, so it was entirely possible.

A flicker of movement out of the window drew Harry's attention. He wandered over and took a look out, frowning when he found no one in sight. He was sure that someone had been there, Reinforce had noticed something as well so it couldn't have been just his imagination. He shook his head, it wasn't anything major and was unimportant.

xxxxx

Harry looked at the noticeboard in the Ravenclaw common room and frowned. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday, and all four houses were going to be together for it. This was apparently unusual, according to the upper years, as apparently there were only just enough brooms to go around.

It didn't help things that the school brooms were supposed to be rather temperamental. They were also supposed to vibrate if you went too high, or always flew slightly to the left, or some of them just failed to go up in the air at all. Harry didn't think it a very safe thing to have people learn to fly on broken brooms.

A lot of people did talk about broomsticks and flying, the first Harry had no experience of but the latter did interest him greatly. Harry had sneaked out to the broom sheds to have a look at the brooms and how they worked. As far as he could tell, they used two 'nodes', one at each end of the broom.

The front end of the broom controlled which direction the broom went in, pointing it where you wanted to go, while the rear end controlled speed and acceleration, giving it the force with which it moved through the air. Harry compared it to a rear-wheel drive car in his head, that seemed to be a fairly good analogy to him at least.

Examining the brooms did allow Harry to get his own flight spells up to two 'nodes' as well, but that was very unstable. Harry wished he could make a three 'node' flight spell so he could finally fly properly, but it was still beyond him. If he could have gotten speed into a two 'node' flight spell then he could probably have made it work, like a bicycle or motorbike, but turning and other aerial manoeuvres would be difficult.

Reinforce had said that, as soon as he managed to get a three 'node' stable flight spell up and running, she would teach him her flight spell. The large black wings that appeared on her back when she used her flight spell, she told Harry, were very distinctive. She said that such an arrangement was indicative of Ancient Belkan magic, smaller wings appearing on heels, knees, waists and so on being more common with Mid-Childan flight spells.

What she didn't tell him was that the wings she used were very distinctive and were indicative herself. If a mage managed to get an image of Harry with said wing arrangement to the bureau, there would be a flurry of confusion as to the reappearance of a spell that bears such a similarity with one connected to the Book of Darkness.

Flying, or Quidditch at least, seemed to be rather popular amongst wizards. There were so many discussions, arguments and debates about who was the best Quidditch team amongst those that grew up in the Wizarding World. Harry equated it with how popular football was in the muggle world.

A number of first years did have stories to tell about their previous attempts at flying on a broom. Malfoy was one of those that talked a lot, often complaining loudly about how first years weren't allowed on the school team. He told long, boastful stories which always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping muggles in helicopters. Harry was surprised that he even knew what a helicopter was, especially given how backwards the Wizarding World seemed to be and how pure bloods disdained anything muggle.

Malfoy wasn't alone in his storytelling, however. Seamus Finnigan told stories that implied he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick. Weasley also told anyone who would listen, not actually all that many, about the time that he'd almost hit a hang-glider on his brother's broom.

Honestly, how wizards had remained hidden from muggles with all of these incidents happening on a seemingly semi-regular basis was a mystery to Harry. Of course, he soon found out about Obliviators, a division of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement that went around wiping the minds of any muggle that saw something even remotely magical.

When he'd asked if these Obliviators had gotten a license to cast magic that messed with peoples' minds, Harry had merely got a shrug in reply and a negative answer. Having read up on the effects of multiple, ill-cast or too powerful memory charms, Harry felt a little sick.

If someone had a bad memory charm cast on them, they could suffer from irreparable mental damage, develop nervous ticks and twitches, palpitations, spasms and other things. People that had received too many memory modifications, a massive number of them, were sometimes reduced to vegetables.

When muggles eventually discovered wizards, because it was going to happen sooner or later, Harry didn't want to see how that went down. While wizards did have magic available to them, muggle technology could be used for incredibly lethal things.

Quidditch was just as popular in Ravenclaw as it was in Gryffindor and Slytherin it seemed, and Harry found it difficult to go anywhere without being able to hear people discussing the sport. He eventually got fed up, and when he wanted to be alone with Loki and Reinforce, he went back to that place he'd found down by the lake and the Forbidden Forest, out of sight of the castle.

Harry had given up on getting peace in the library, what with Hermione Granger glaring holes into him whenever he went there. She'd really taken it as a personal insult that someone could be better at something than she could. Her attitude was really not making her any friends, driving everyone away from her.

Harry had taken to meditating more and more in order to keep himself calm. He'd even gotten Reinforce to teach him how to use his mana as a cushion to sit on while he meditated, allowing him to float cross-legged in the air. That was more challenging than just simple meditation, but it was more effective.

He and Reinforce were now having small scale mock battles with the spells that Harry currently knew. His Panzerschild couldn't stand up to more than a few dozen Photon Lancer shots, and multiple Bloody Daggers tore right through it as if it wasn't there. His bind break was pretty good though, and Reinforce had taught him a basic binding spell as well, Ring Bind.

Reinforce wondered if teaching Harry a different shield spell in addition to Panzerschild, Round Shield maybe, would help him improve that at all. She'd consider it, and maybe she would teach it to him sometime around Christmas maybe. Knowing how different shields were constructed might help him to understand how to make his own shields stronger, it couldn't hurt.

xxxxx

At breakfast on Thursday morning, Harry could clearly see that everyone in first year was talking about their flying lessons later that day. Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy was bragging about his skills on a broom. The Hufflepuff table had the pure and half bloods explaining about Quidditch to the muggle-borns. The Ravenclaw table had Harry trying to simultaneously calm Sally-Anne down and learn a glamour charm to cover up the scarred half of his face. Even Hermione Granger at the Gryffindor table was involved in the Quidditch hype, reading _Quidditch Through the Ages_ for hints and tips.

Loki flew in and took some food from Harry's plate during breakfast, getting a smile out of the tense and nervous boy. Flying by your own spell was one thing, flying by relying on an enchanted stick was something completely different. Harry would rather trust the flight spells he'd already used and failed with than trust himself to a broomstick.

A commotion over at the Gryffindor table drew Harry's attention. It looked like Malfoy had gone over, for one reason or another, and Weasley had taken exception to his presence. Mcgonagall was soon there to diffuse the situation though, and Malfoy threw something back to Neville Longbottom.

_~That's a Remembrall.~_ Reinforce told him. _~It's from the same classification of objects as pensieves and memory projectors. It will change colour if there's something you've forgotten. It's supposed to be a useful study aid, helping you memorise things by informing you of whether you remembered it correctly.~_

_~Where did you find that out?~_ Harry asked.

Harry got the distinct mental impression of a slight blush from Reinforce. _~I've been sneaking off to the library at night when you've been sleeping. I... have a bit of an idea, but I don't know how well it will work. I found a book on dark detectors: Sneakoscopes, Foe Glass, and so on and so forth. Memory devices were also mentioned in it, as an example of other devices that were tangentially related.~_

_~May I know what this idea is?~_ Harry mentally prodded Reinforce, like a nudge in the ribs.

_~Nope.~_ She said, popping the 'P'. _~I'll probably show you what it is, if it works. Actually, it could well be a good Christmas gift or something. Could you owl order a few blank notebooks for me, please? Hard backed ones would be preferable, but any would work as proof of concept.~_

Harry's interest was piqued, and of course he would order the notebooks for Reinforce. _~Okay, I'll keep my questions to myself for now. Just be careful not to be seen, no one at Hogwarts knows anything at all about you except the sorting hat. If at all possible, I'd rather people here remained ignorant of your presence, goodness knows what they'd do if they knew about you.~_

_~Aww, is Harry being all protective of me?~_ Reinforce asked, making Harry roll his eyes in response.

_~Where did you get this teasing attitude of yours? I don't remember you being like this when we first met and it's only been a few months since then.~_ Harry grumbled.

_~We met in winter, it's now autumn, that's three quarters of a year pretty much. Besides that, I'm such an advanced AI that I'm a person in my own right. Just like humans, Unison Devices can grow and develop too, you know. Now get along, it's time for classes to begin.~_ Harry blinked, checking his watch for the time, before getting up, grabbing his bag and heading off to lesson.

xxxxx

At three thirty that afternoon, the first years spilled out and onto the grounds. Seeing where forty broomsticks were all laid out, ready and waiting, Harry headed in that direction with Sally-Anne. He ended up at the far end of the line, with Sally-Anne across to his left and Daphne and Blaise opposite them. Hopefully, like this, even if his hair did flap about a bit, no one would get a good look at his face.

The weather seemed to be appropriate for flying, it was clear and there was a little bit of a breeze. The grass rippled beneath their feet and the lawn was fairly short and smooth. In the distance, the trees of the Forbidden Forest were swaying gently and rustling quietly.

Madam Hooch, the flying instructor, arrived before long. She had short grey hair and yellow, hawk-like eyes. Harry wondered why her eyes were yellow, as that wasn't a natural colour, and wondered if he could use something similar as an excuse if anyone ever saw his red left eye.

"Well? What are all of you waiting for?" She said, as if she wasn't actually the last person to turn up. "Everyone stand beside a broom, there's enough for one each." It didn't take long for every student to stand next to a broom. They were in two lines of twenty a side.

For some reason, either by design or coincidence, all of the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors ended up on the same side, opposite all of the Ravenclaws and Slytherins. There was a lot of glaring done by some of the students, mostly the Slytherins and Gryffindors, making Harry shake his head. For goodness sake, they were all eleven, why was this rivalry perpetuating so?

"Stick your right hand out and over your broom, then say 'UP!'" Hooch demonstrated, the broom next to her flying into her hand.

Harry's eyes looked over the broom next to him, not impressed. The broomstick was old, some of the twigs sticking out at odd angles, and there were small, spider web cracks in the handle. It didn't really look safe, and a glance around showed he probably wasn't the only one thinking that.

"Up!" Harry called in as commanding a voice as he could.

He was a little surprised when it jumped right into his hand like an eager puppy. The broom felt almost alive under his hand, he could almost see a floppy-eared dog, looking up at him with a pleading look in its eyes, wanting Harry to lavish attention on it.

While his wasn't the only broom to do so, there weren't many others. Granger's simply rolled over, Longbottom's hadn't moved at all, Thomas' broom flipped end over end, Sally-Anne's jumped about halfway up before falling back down again, Zacharias Smith's smacked him in the face, and Pansy Parkinson's flipped up her robes and skirt, putting her underwear on display.

Once everyone had their broom in their hands, either by calling it or simply picking it up, Madam Hooch marched up and down the lines, making sure they were gripping their brooms properly. Malfoy was told that he was holding it wrong, but he claimed that he had been doing it that way for years. Her reply was that he'd been doing it wrong for years then.

"Now, when I blow my whistle, you will kick off from the ground, hard." Hooch was saying. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle! Three. Two..." Hooch didn't get the chance to finish her countdown.

Neville, who was incredibly nervous, jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" Hooch shouted at him, but Neville continued to rise higher and higher into the air, straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle. He went up and up and up, his scared and white face looking down at them from the heights he was getting to.

He slid sideways off the broom, making those looking gasp, and he fell.

Before he hit the ground, and received serious injury, a glyph appeared in the air, several actually. The glyphs slowed his fall before disappearing. Harry just hoped that no one had noticed his hair suddenly turning silver and his one green eye turning red, before it faded back to his normal colouring.

Such a spell was beyond Harry, but Reinforce was capable of casting it through him during a unison. That spell in particular was one Reinforce had absorbed from a nameless mage, but it was the same as one that Yuuno Scrya had used during a fight between Fate and Nanoha over a jewel seed, the one involving an overgrown kitten.

The class clustered around Neville, Hooch having to fight her way through them to get to Neville. The boy in question was quivering badly, going into shock it seemed. Up in the air, the broom that Neville had been riding started to lazily drift towards the Forbidden Forest.

"Hospital wing for you, boy. Madam Pomfrey will have something for you, no doubt about that. A little calming draught will see you fine, don't conk out on me, lad." Hooch was saying. Harry sighed, before striding forwards and putting Neville's arm around his neck.

"I'll take him, professor." Harry said. Aside from getting Neville to the hospital wing, it was also get him out of the flying lesson too. Having a classmate almost die had shaken him up a bit, especially seeing as how Hooch hadn't even had her wand out to do anything.

Harry saw Neville's Remembrall, rolling away in the grass, and picked it up on the way past. He walked the shaking Neville up to the castle, looking back once, before heading into the castle and off to the hospital wing. Behind his back, two pairs of eyes followed his steps.

xxxxx

Up in the hospital wing, Harry leaned against the wall while Neville was administered a calming draught. He looked out of the window next to him, giving him a clear view of the Quidditch pitch. He wondered if that was done on purpose, injuries in Quidditch were hardly uncommon after all.

His eyes became locked on two figures, one in red and the other in green, that began to dive at each other. Hooch looked to be occupied with a student with red trim, Granger if the bushy hair was anything to go by, and wasn't paying attention to what was going on.

"Photon Lancer." Harry muttered under his breath, six orbs of light appearing in front of him. The orbs shot off towards the two idiots diving at each other, taking both of them and those around them by surprise. The two of them were knocked off their brooms in short order.

It was better for Harry to knock them off their brooms while they were close to the ground, before they started taking their little showdown to greater heights and risking themselves unnecessarily. He might not like either of them, and was actively avoiding both, but he wasn't going to let them risk injury like they were.

He saw Mcgonagall leave the castle and berate the pair of them, before looking around for where those weird orbs had come from. Harry remained still, hiding at the edge of the window, watching what she might do. Had Mcgonagall been watching the practise? Had she seen him unison with Reinforce?

It didn't look like it, but he would be as careful as he could from now on. Still, if it was a choice between revealing Reinforce and someone being seriously injured or dying, there wasn't a choice there at all. Harry might be a bit standoffish with people in general, and he possessed a fair amount of cynicism, but he wasn't one of the bad guys.

Turning around, he found that Neville had calmed down a lot, the calming draught having kicked in. Madam Pomfrey, seeing that nothing was now amiss, let him go. Harry fell into step beside him and the pair of them walked off, letting Neville take the lead.

They ended up in front of a portrait of a rather large woman. Neville mumbled about them having reached the Gryffindor common room and thanking him for walking all the way with him. Harry replied that it was nothing and left him there, heading off himself.

Wandering through the corridors, not really heading in any direction in particular, Harry came across a rather interesting sight. Draco Malfoy, backed up by Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe, was stood opposite Ronald Weasley, backed up by Seamus Finnigan.

"Well, Weasel, it looks like nothing is stopping us continuing what was started during flying. There's no Mcgonagall to save your skin now, if you're brave enough to actually do anything that is." Malfoy sneered at the redhead. Harry, curious, let his eyes flicker over everything, wondering where this was heading.

"I'd take you any time, _Malfoy_." Weasley spat. "Where and when?"

Harry heard footsteps at the edge of his hearing and made sure he was hidden in the shadows of the corridor he was stood in. He heard Malfoy challenge Weasley to a wizard's duel in the trophy room at midnight, the two of them deciding on their seconds as well.

Once Malfoy left, with perfect timing, Hermione Granger came around the corner and looked absolutely furious at her house mates. She laid into them about risking losing the points she had earned for Gryffindor. Harry's lip did twitch when she mentioned him, muttering about how much of an 'obstacle' he was to her.

Weasley brushed her off and everyone left that section of corridor. Harry stepped out of the shadows and looked after them. _~Well, Reinforce, what do you think? Both of them are pure bloods, it's likely that they both have received prior training, even if by just being around magic all their lives. I'd like to see how things turn out.~_

_~You mean that your curiosity is getting the better of you, don't you? You do have something of an adventurous spirit, as buried as it is, so I already know you plan to go yourself.~_ Reinforce mused. _~It will be interesting I suppose, so sure, why not? What could it hurt?~_

_~You're tempting fate, Rein, that's never a good thing.~_ Harry chuckled, heading back to Ravenclaw tower.


	8. Behind the Door

AN: Another chapter incoming, and I think this one takes me to about half-way through the Philospher's Stone book, I know that I'm now using pages 126 onwards as references for chapter nine at least. Anyway, I'm wondering if anyone can guess what Reinforce's little project is from the hints that I've been giving. It's going to be her Christmas present to Harry, so you won't have to wait _too_ long to find out if you can't guess it. I also think what I'm doing is a very logical and plausible way of going about it, so there :P

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 8 – Behind the Door

"Why does Kanji have to be so confusing?" Harry grumbled out loud.

Said boy was currently trying to work his way through the Japanese language, meeting with good but limited success. Reinforce was teaching him the language, along with German, and Harry thought he might be able to speak broken, imperfect Japanese by next summer. The same was true of his German.

He glanced at the time once more, waiting for eleven o'clock to roll around. The Ravenclaw common room, where Harry was currently sat, was surprisingly empty. It seemed that most of his house mates liked to drift off to sleep whilst reading a book and had already left to do so.

A few of the upper years had hung around until a bit after half ten, doing homework in small study groups, but they were also gone already. Since no one had come back down, Reinforce had actually made an appearance and was sat next to Harry.

They _were_ sitting where they could clearly see both the doors to the dormitories and the entrance to the common room, just in case someone arrived and Reinforce needed to disappear, but it was nice to just sit there together. Of course, given the fact they didn't have anything in particular to do, Reinforce had continued teaching Harry what she knew.

Reinforce shrugged her shoulders. "That's just the way it is. While the phonology and grammar is pretty simple, you just have to learn and memorise the written form of it. Of course, Hiragana and Katakana are both fairly straight forward, simple memorisation is all that's really required, Kanji will be what takes time to learn."

She giggled a little at Harry's frustrated look and leaned forward, ruffling his hair with one hand. She liked doing that, and it made her feel a little special because she knew Harry would only let her do it. A croak at the open window, made the pair of them look over and see Loki sitting on the windowsill, seemingly laughing at them with a twinkle in his eye.

"I wonder what that bird is thinking? He seems far too amused to me." Harry asked, brushing his hair flat again.

He shook his head as the raven flew into the room and perched on Reinforce's shoulder. Both Harry and Reinforce and Harry just watched, wondering what the heck it was doing, as it seemed to examine Reinforce for a moment, looking her up and down, before croaking again.

It then tugged on her hair, pulling her towards Harry sat at her right. Reinforce reached up to knock the raven away, but Loki took this opportunity to fly off her shoulder, circle around her head, and knock into her from the other side. Reinforce turned and fell towards Harry who caught her, but he was knocked over as well.

The raven croaked in what the two of them assumed was laughter as it saw Reinforce had fallen onto Harry and the two of them were now on the floor. Harry looked into Reinforce's red eyes, his own hair had fallen to the side and left his scarred visage on full display.

Reinforce didn't flinch away from the sight, nor did she seem disgusted at it, nor did she look at him with pity. Any one of those things, Harry wouldn't have been able to stand, but Reinforce acted as if it was just nothing special, merely something that identified him as Harry.

He smiled softly up at her, earning a small smile back, before Reinforce got up and then offered Harry a hand to pull him to his feet. Harry glared lightly at Loki, who looked unrepentant as he landed on Harry's shoulder and nudged him with a wing.

Reinforce shook her head at the sight of the playful, and honestly scarily intelligent, raven. She looked at the time, noting that it was just a few minutes before eleven, and disappeared. Harry, now with Reinforce back inside himself, headed out of the common room.

"Beware that your curiosity doesn't lead you the same way it did the cat, young mage knight." The eagle shaped knocker spoke up, surprising Harry, who turned around and gave it an odd look.

"Curiosity may have killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back. Why do you insist on calling me a mage knight?" Harry asked, looking back at the knocker, wondering just how intelligent it was.

"Satisfaction may have brought the cat back, but it lost a life along the way, and you only have one life to lose. I call you mage knight because that is what you are, even if no one knows what that means, not even I." The knocker replied. "Be wary when you wander at night, monsters don't always hide under beds, nor do they always look like monsters."

With those words in his mind, Harry began to wander through the halls of Hogwarts. The trophy room was only a ten minute walk away, so he had plenty of time. Harry decided that he could use some of his spare time to take a look in the restricted section of the library, and headed in that direction.

xxxxx

He arrived at the library unmolested, and Harry was honestly surprised that he hadn't come across a professor or something. He knew that the staff had a rota of patrols and wandered the halls at night in order to catch those out after curfew, so where were they?

Loki kept flying along the corridors, perching on torch brackets and other things, and Harry thought he might be acting as a scout or lookout. He knew that if Loki reacted to something, he would be hurrying in the other direction in case it was a professor.

Anyway, now that he was actually in the library, Harry sneaked over to the restricted section. Reinforce appeared next to Harry, guiding him over an invisible trip wire ward that was hanging at around knee height to the eleven year old. Apparently, from what Harry could gather, such a ward was more difficult to detect than others, but also much more easily avoided by those that knew it was there, or those that could detect it like Reinforce could.

Once past that trip wire, Reinforce and Harry split up. The Unison Device, Harry noticed, picked up a book titled _'Memories Made Real'_, while Harry himself wandered off amongst the shelves, looking for something that might catch his eye. He eventually settled down with a book called _'Magic Most Mysterious'_ and read through that for half an hour.

The book Harry was reading, turned out to be rather interesting really. It was an old book, from a time when most spells were created by trial and error, before Arithmancy really existed and started calculating things. It talked about coincidences and patterns the author had noticed whilst trying to create spells, but it was in the restricted section for a reason, there were also sections that spoke about the author's experimentation on muggles and what results he'd got from it.

Harry's eyes did return to Reinforce a couple of times, and he was trying to work out what she was planning with what books she was reading. At one point, she had returned to the main part of the library and brought back a book on runes, another time it was a potions book, and she kept that _'Memories Made Real'_ with her all the time.

So, as far as Harry could work out, her little project had something to do with potions, runes and memories. He wasn't at all sure what she needed the notebooks he'd bought her for, but he was sure that it was going to be something interesting, whatever it was.

xxxxx

At quarter to midnight, Harry and Reinforce put the books away and made their way out of the library. Reinforce had returned inside Harry's body, and Loki seemed to be acting as a scout again. He made it to the trophy room without incident, and settled in to wait.

Five minutes later, the door opened. Harry, who was half-hidden behind a curtain and shrouded in shadows, went unnoticed. Through the door, came Weasley and Finnegan, as well as, to Harry's surprise, Granger and Longbottom. The last two didn't exactly look like they wanted to be there, Granger was in a huff and Longbottom was nervously looking around the place.

Knowing that Reinforce would be able to get him out of there with a teleport, Harry was rather calm about the whole thing. They had tested whether Hogwarts' wards prevented teleportation, like they did apparition, and found that they were able to do teleport without restriction.

Still, he'd prefer to go completely undetected and remained hidden in the shadows. While he was there, Harry's eyes fell across some of the nearby awards. Huh, it seemed that Lily Evans had achieved record breaking results in her charms NEWT. At least, that's what the award closest to Harry was saying. Looking at the awards for other subjects, three of them had the name Tom Riddle, one had Albus Dumbledore, another couple had the same surnames as some of his class mates, and there was one that had a definitely foreign name, French by the looks of it.

Harry, personally, couldn't care less about what results his mother had received. He knew that he would have to play the part of a student, and he would have to pretend to not know about his parents still being alive too. The Wizarding World wouldn't believe him for one, and he had no desire to be labelled delusional, but there was obviously someone who was keeping an eye on him.

The tracking charms on Loki had been the biggest hint so far, but not the only one. Knowing that he was being kept under observation, and someone was probably trying to manipulate him in some way too, meant that he would have to be very careful about how he went about doing things.

He'd gone down to Hagrid's, not to hear stories about his parents, but because that was what he had been expected to do. It didn't hurt that there was also an opportunity to find out about who it was that was trying to keep track of him, allowing Harry to know who he definitely couldn't trust.

Currently, the only person that Harry truly trusted was Reinforce. He was also beginning to get to know Sally-Anne as a friend, slowly, but he wasn't about to spill his deepest secrets to her. He was also, _very_ slowly, beginning to make friends with Daphne and Blaise, but that was a whole different kettle of fish.

Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini, unlike Malfoy, really did embody Slytherin traits. They weren't loud-mouthed braggarts, like Malfoy was, and nor did they spout their beliefs for all to hear, whatever those beliefs may be. They were also both from neutral families.

After the war with Voldemort, both the 'light' and 'dark' families had taken some quite severe hits, a number of old families on both sides had actually been wiped out. The neutrals, on the other hand, had suffered very few losses, and a number of them were in better positions now than they had been before the war.

Given all of that, there was absolutely no way at all that Harry was really going to divulge any secrets to them, and he would be careful of what he did say when he was around them as a matter of course. Not that Harry thought they'd instantly try and capitalise on any slip-ups he may make, but they were both subtle enough to make use of them.

A few minutes passed and Harry was beginning to think that this whole duel had been a set up. It seemed that Weasley and Finnegan thought otherwise, talking about how Malfoy had probably chickened out. They had just decided to wait another ten minutes before leaving when a voice could be heard from the opposite doorway, a voice that most definitely did not belong to Draco Malfoy.

The Gryffindors panicked, and fled through the door they'd entered by. Harry too began to think that coming here had not been the best idea he'd ever had, but he had the presence of mind to do something other than panic and run. He pointed his wand at the door from which Filch's voice was coming and muttered "Colloportus."

The locking charm, the opposite of Alohomora, both of which could be found in the Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1, was used to physically shut and seal doors against purely physical means. Interestingly enough, a door that had a lock would find the key would be unable to open the door, but even the most basic unlocking charm could undo a Colloportus-locked door.

The door rattled in its frame, not moving when the caretaker tried to get in. Harry knew that Filch wouldn't be able to get through the door now, he had no linker core at all. Harry didn't understand why Filch was at Hogwarts, even as a caretaker, when he obviously couldn't do the slightest bit of magic. Honestly, how did that man actually manage to keep the castle as clean as it was by himself?

Anyway, Harry thought that enough time had passed that the Gryffindors would be long gone already, so he just walked out of the other door. Deciding that he'd had enough for the night, he headed off back to Ravenclaw tower. He was only a couple corridors away, though, when something happened.

There was an almighty crash coming from somewhere nearby and then Finnegan's voice called out "RUN!" at the top of his lungs. Harry thought that, if nothing else, that would insure that the rest of the bloody castle was now awake. Harry could see people in the portraits waking up and looking around blearily, and how did that work anyway? Were the portraits using some kind of magical AI?

Regardless of that, there was a trampling of feet coming in Harry's direction. He scooted to the side of the corridor and hid behind a tapestry, waiting for the Gryffindors to come charging past. Once they did, Harry amused himself by keeping up with them while still remaining unseen.

Since Reinforce had dropped into his life, Harry now exercised regularly, literally every day, so he had no trouble keeping up with the already panting students that he was following. One thing that Harry did find suspicious though, was the way that they seemed to be being directed.

All of the moveable stairs they came across were already set in position, secret passageways that Harry knew existed weren't there any more, and no one had yet reacted to all of the noise that had been caused. It seemed, to Harry and Reinforce, to be another set up.

When they all ended up on the third floor corridor, Harry's paranoia was raised another notch, especially as it was only then that an adult caught up with them. Seeing Granger's Alohomora, the most simple unlocking charm there was, open the door on the forbidden corridor, made Harry's eyes widen and he darted in after them.

While he might not be the most powerful person around, he attributed that title to Reinforce, he was still a damn sight more powerful than the other first years here. Granger was probably second in terms of the first years, her rabid need to know everything and devour every book she caught sight of meant she was likely to know and have practised more spells than anyone bar him.

Harry was rather amused when not one of them noticed he had joined the group. It was rather like one of those comedy horror films where the group is being chased by monsters and a monster ends up joining them, only to give them all a scare when they think they're safe.

Looking at what was in the room, however, erased all traces of levity from Harry's face. A cerberus, a bloody three-headed dog, was standing there groggily, just waking up from a nap, and starting to pay attention to what was in the same room as it.

"Ring Bind" Harry muttered under his breath, hoping against hope that his simple binding spell would hold the beast long enough for them to get out of the room and stay alive. Neville, it seemed, had noticed the dog, and his whimpers alerted everyone else.

A sharp intake of breath told Harry that everyone now knew about the cerberus. Weasley scrabbled at the door, throwing it open and stumbling outside, followed by everyone else, before the door slammed shut again. Harry had seen the cerberus tear apart his Ring Bind with little difficulty, slowing it down only a little, as he too hurried outside.

As the Gryffindors caught their breath, Harry disappeared around a corner and leaned heavily against the wall, his heart hammering at a million miles a minute. What the bloody hell were they doing with a rank four dangerous creature in a room that could be opened with a bloody first year spell!

Die a very painful death indeed! While it might not be the worst way to go out, being ripped limb from limb by a three-headed dog probably wasn't the most pleasant experience one could go through. That wasn't including whatever came after that, Harry _had_ seen the trapdoor on which the cerberus was stood.

Making his way back to Ravenclaw tower as rapidly as he could, Harry made a mental note to quash any future bouts of curiosity like that one, he'd rather live to reach his twenties, thank you very much. Harry's cynical and more distrusting nature reared its head, wondering if Dumbledore was _trying_ to kill his students, before he cut it off and found himself before the eagle knocker once more.

"Well, you were right, curiosity almost did get me killed. Now, are you going to ask me a riddle and let me in?" Harry grumbled at the knocker. He could almost swear that the blasted thing was grinning at him with an 'I told you so' look in its face, but he decided that it must be his imagination.

"When you fall in me, you're as happy as could be, but you fall into depression when you lose me, what am I?" The knocker asked. Harry blinked at it, trying to work out what the answer could be. He doubted that falling into anything physical would really make you happy, so it must mean something metaphorical. Ah! He'd got it.

"Love." Harry said, answering the riddle.

"Correct, young mage knight." The knocker replied, making Harry twitch as it called him a mage knight _again_.

xxxxx

At breakfast the next morning, Harry saw Malfoy looking at Weasley incredulously, as if he couldn't believe he was still in Hogwarts. Weasley was looking relatively cheerful, but he did glare at Malfoy when he noticed him, not like that was anything new though. Finnegan looked alright too, a small grin visible on his face.

Neville wasn't looking too good though, and given how nervous and lacking in confidence he was, Harry was pretty sure that the round faced boy had suffered from nightmares that had featured three-headed dogs when he'd gotten back to his dormitory last night.

Harry noticed that Granger seemed to be actively ignoring Weasley and Finnegan, her opinion of their 'little adventure' being quite obvious. Granger's nose was buried in a book, like usual, and Harry thought he recognised it as their Potions text, making him think back to what Reinforce had been reading the previous night.

He'd asked her what ingredients she'd need for whatever potion she was planning on brewing, and she'd just come out and told him exactly what potion she needed. It was a fairly simple one, a potion that a first year could brew without difficulty, that made images move. It was most often used on photos and the like so that the people in them came to life.

It was different to the magic in the paintings that were hung around the school, far less complex, and not actually on the syllabus for them to learn. It was that potion that made the pictures in the newspaper move, though what Reinforce intended to do with it was a mystery to Harry.

Harry's eyes flickered up to the head table. Snape noticed him looking immediately and met Harry's gaze for a while before breaking it off. During Potions lessons, Snape had continued to ask Harry difficult questions, and Harry felt that Snape was testing him, pushing him, by doing so.

It was... odd. Snape obviously had _something_ against him, but the more Harry answered the difficult questions correctly, the more Snape seemed to approve of him. He had still to receive a single point from the man, but what Snape was doing actually made Harry feel like he was doing well in that class.

Harry's eyes then fell on Hagrid's large form, and he wondered if he had anything to do with the cerberus on the third floor. From what Harry remembered from when they'd talked to Hagrid in his hut, the large man did have the right sort of attitude for that sort of thing. After all, what ordinary man thinks that a ferocious dragon would make for a cute and cuddly pet?

After Hagrid, Harry looked at some of the teachers he had yet to have any lessons with. For a change, Sybil Trelawney was in attendance. She had a reputation amongst the Ravenclaws as a bit of a fraud that 'taught' a totally useless subject. Yeah, Trelawney didn't have many fans in Ravenclaw.

Next was Bathsheda Babbling, the Ancient Runes professor. She was a rather short, ordinary looking woman with mousy brown hair. Unfortunately, Harry would have to wait for third year before he could take Ancient Runes, due to it being an elective, but it was definitely a class he was looking forward to.

Harry liked runes, they were very straight forward and logical. He had already begun to try using runes himself, but he was keeping things simple for now. A fire rune would cause something to ignite, a light rune would glow, and so on, simple things like that.

Septima Vector, the Arithmancy teacher, was sat next to Babbling. Arithmancy was another subject that Harry was looking forward to, seeing as it was essentially magical mathematics. It was a subject that attributed numbers and values to things, allowing magic to be calculated and quantified. It also bore a more than passing resemblance to the Belkan and Mid-Childan magic Harry knew.

At the centre of the head table, sat Dumbledore. The headmaster seemed to be presiding over everyone and everything in the hall, his eyes twinkling merrily as he ate his food. Harry wondered what it was that the headmaster really did at the school, especially seeing as he had two other important positions as well.

Harry shrugged, before going back to his meal, it wasn't like it really mattered anyway. Harry wasn't likely to have much contact with the headmaster, not unless he got involved in something really big at least. No, as long as he kept his head down for seven years, there was no reason for Harry to really meet the headmaster.

xxxxx

_~How did I end up here again?~_ Harry wondered, glancing around the headmaster's office.

_~I don't know,~_ Reinforce replied blandly. _~Why don't you tell me?~_

Harry internally rolled his eyes, but thought back to what had happened anyway. He'd just finished his last lesson of the day and had been heading back to Ravenclaw tower, when a girl had approached him and given him a note. The note had been from the headmaster, asking him to meet him in his office, giving him the password necessary to get passed the gargoyle that guarded the way.

Harry's eyes flickered to the man in question, who seemed to be observing him over the top of his glasses. "You wished to see me, headmaster?" Harry asked, deciding to break the silence between them. He'd been here for almost five minutes now, and neither one of them had said anything at all.

"Ah, yes, I did, didn't I?" Dumbledore said. "Don't worry, you're not in trouble, not at all." Dumbledore paused, his eyes twinkling at Harry. "At least, not with me at any rate, I can't vouch for any others, but you are most definitely not in trouble with me."

Harry inclined his head and waited. Dumbledore furrowed his brow, before he started speaking again. "It's just there's a few things that I would like to ask you, if you don't mind of course, and I'd like to get some answers. Firstly, Madam Pomfrey has informed me about... your physical differences, and I would like to know how that came about."

Ah, he wanted to know why half his face, hidden behind his hair, was as scarred and disfigured as it was. Harry had known this was going to come up sooner or later, it was probably going to be best to just come clean with it. "My muggle cousin thought it would be a great idea to pour acid over my head last winter. Thankfully, my eyes and mouth were closed, so I can still function normally, but not even magic will be able to heal the scars." Dumbledore winced at that.

"I-I see. I suppose then that I owe you an apology, dear boy. You may not know this, but your parents were good friends of mine before they died, and it was I who placed you with your aunt and uncle. The powerful magic that your mother's sacrifice invoked _should_ have kept you safe from all harm, but it doesn't seem to be as effective as I'd thought it was." Dumbledore frowned even more. "Still, the protections you gain from living with your mother's blood should be strong, I erected the wards myself, but maybe I should have had a closer eye kept on you." Dumbledore trailed off, before looking back up again.

"Ah, never mind that for now. Anyway, my second question is more of a curiosity than anything else. As I'm sure you know, the door knocker that lets you into Ravenclaw tower asks riddles. Once a riddle is correctly answered, the knocker congratulates the one who worked it out. Normally it calls said student 'young witch' or 'young wizard', occasionally calling them a 'seer', 'enchanter' or some other such title. It's rare, but it does happen. From what I've heard, it has been calling you a 'mage knight', but I've never heard of such a thing before. Do you know why it calls you such?" Dumbledore asked.

Harry shook his head. "No, I don't. I've tried asking it myself, but it didn't really give me an answer. Surprisingly, the knocker itself doesn't seem to know what a 'mage knight' is, despite calling me one itself, and I don't have any more information to give you."

Dumbledore nodded. "Now, finally, can you tell me why you haven't passed the required broom safety lessons? Your first lesson, usually the only one people need, you didn't even end up mounting a broom, yet you have not spoken with Madam Hooch about taking the lesson some other time."

"I did not know I was supposed to do that." Harry replied. "My first lesson was the one where I took Neville to the hospital wing, and I never heard anything after that. I did not know I was supposed to go to her about taking the lesson some other time. Frankly, I am reluctant to go up on a broom as it is likely that my full face would be seen. I am trying to learn a glamour charm to cover it up, at least temporarily, but I have so far been unsuccessful."

"Oh? What charm are you trying to use?" Dumbledore asked.

"Absconde Faciem." Harry told him.

"Ah, yes, that's not the easiest glamour charm to cast. You might want to try 'Celaverimus Cicatrix' instead. You can find it in _'Charms to conceal, hide and mask'_ in the library. Illusion spells in general aren't the easiest to learn, but that book does contain the simplest of that branch of magic." Dumbledore said.

:Thank you, sir." Harry said, a little hesitantly. He was waiting for whatever was going to happen next, surely the headmaster didn't get involved in every instance of a student needing to re-take a flying lesson, even if they were physically scarred. "Is that everything?"

"Oh? Yes, yes, it is. You can go now, maybe look up that book I told you about. While Illusions _are_ charms, the Hogwarts syllabus only really mentions them in passing, but maybe Professor Flitwick may be able to help you if you find yourself having trouble casting them." Dumbledore dismissed Harry.

Once he was out of the door, Dumbledore furrowed his brow further in thought. "Lily's sacrificial protection should be absolute, it should prevent something like that from happening. Did I cast the wards wrong? Hmm, maybe I'd better pop over to Privet Drive myself, Arabella certainly didn't tell me about that acid incident, I wonder why? And those fledgling Occlumency shields of his are rather strong. I only caught an image of silver hair and red eyes, before I was forcibly ejected at least. I wonder what significance those features have?"

Dumbledore sucked on a lemon drop in thought, wondering about one student in particular and the oddities surrounding him.


	9. Halloween

AN: You know, I've been quite surprised by the number of people that instantly scream 'manipulative Dumbledore' as soon as they see something contrived. Granted, the man _will_ be manipulating certain things in my story, but that won't necessarily make him the bad guy. Anyway, tell me what you think about the chapter and all of the usual stuff, blah, blah, blah. I am hoping to get first year out of the way relatively quickly, so I can get on to more interesting things, hehehehehe. I have plans, people! Plans that have to wait until _at least_ third year before they can be implemented. There will be divergence from canon in second year as well, but the further into the story I go, the greater the differences become. Oh, and for those asking, Harry is the same age as Nanoha and co. and it is all in the same reality too.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 9 - Halloween

Time passed, as time always does, and Harry became more and more adept at magic. With Reinforce's guidance, Harry began learning more complex and powerful binding spells. The way that cerberus had torn through his ring bind, only slowing down the smallest bit, had really gotten to Harry.

Knowing that, without a device, Harry was limited in what he could do, he also researched Wizarding spells that could hopefully prove useful. 'Petrificus Totalus', the full body bind spell, looked to be one of the more useful spells he'd found so far.

All of the Mid-Childan and Belkan spells Reinforce knew affected an enemy externally, either chaining someone up in one way or another or pinning them in place, but this spell affected them internally, causing their entire body to become immobilised, locking their muscles and shutting down parts of their nervous system.

Honestly, if it wasn't as easy to dispel as it was, Harry would say it was a damn scary spell. It didn't take any more skill or power to cast than was available to a first year, unlike a stunning spell and its ilk, yet it still took an enemy out of the fight completely, unless they had an accomplice ot someone else with them to cancel the body bind.

Anyway, moving on, time passed and Harry continued to learn magic. In transfiguration, Harry began to notice a pattern emerging in some of the spells they were learning: Av_ifors_, Lap_ifors_, Dracon_ifors_, Snuffl_ifors_, all had one thing in common, the end of the word. They all turned objects into the root of the word, either birds, rabbits, miniature dragons or mice.

Granted, all of those had been done as examples by Mcgonagall rather than by the class, they were still working on various inanimate to inanimate transfigurations, but Harry had given it a go in his spare time. The results had been... varied. True, he had _eventually_, after several hours of constantly practising the spell, gotten it right, but his earlier attempts had been frankly grotesque.

You really don't want to know what it looks like when a pebble is only half-way transformed into a rabbit... those poor, poor bunnies. You also didn't want to see the results when Harry got frustrated with it and used the various different spells on the same pebble, one after another. Reinforce had wondered where the tentacles had come from, the tortoise shell too, but was rather afraid to ask, or even contemplate such a thing.

Oh, Harry had also found out what his snake speech ability was called. Parseltongue, as it was apparently called, was a language that was used to converse, surprise, surprise, with snakes. No one actually knew where the language came from, but several theories had it originating with Naga or Lamia, due to their being a written equivalent and, of course, ordinary snakes don't write things out. The ability was also supposed to be a mark of a dark wizard or witch, so Harry made a mental note to not shout about him having such an ability.

On Halloween morning, the smell of baking pumpkin wafted through the entire castle. Honestly, Harry didn't particular like it, the smell turning his stomach slightly and making him a little queasy, but most others seemed to find the scent pleasant. When Harry entered the Great Hall for breakfast, the sight of so much pumpkin in different forms made him twitch slightly, wasn't there such a thing as overkill?

In charms class, which they shared with Gryffindor, they were put into pairs and told to practise the levitation charm. Of course, Harry had already practised the spell himself, even if he wasn't supposed to use magic outside of class, and had gotten the hang of it after he'd embedded a third paper clip into a tree trunk. He'd been using too much force apparently, turning the relatively harmless objects into potentially lethal projectiles.

Harry was paired up with Kevin Entwhistle, one of the boys he shared a dormitory with. While Harry didn't join in with the study sessions his house mates did, he wasn't totally isolated from them. It was true that Reinforce did encourage him to make friends of his own, believing that having no one but herself would not make for a happy life, but Harry didn't exactly go out of his way to make friends.

Seeing that everyone else was just waving their wands around saying the spell, Harry bit back a sigh. If magic was that simple then a school wouldn't be as necessary as it was. At his suggestion, both he and Kevin practised the wand movements, before then practising the pronunciation of the spell. After that, they were just about to practise on the actual feather they were supposed to be levitating, but Flitwick cried out in a happy voice that 'Miss Granger's done it!' and everyone turned around to see her levitating her feather into the air.

Harry was rather amused by the smug look she threw him, and Harry decided to have a little fun. He cast the levitation charm on the same feather that Granger was levitating. Now, the levitation charm basically attaches a controllable vector to a physical object, so when two levitation charms are cast on the same object, those vectors get added together.

Harry overpowered his levitation charm, aiming the vector directly downwards, causing Granger's feather to slam into the table in front of her. It might be a little vindictive, but Granger was seriously eating away at Harry's patience with her competitive nature. He probably shouldn't have done it, but he had not been able to resist wiping that smug look off of her face.

He turned around and encouraged Kevin to try and levitate the feather in front of him, asking him focus on the _desire_ to see the feather float as he cast the spell. Since a language was unlikely to directly control magic (Really, how could it?), Harry thought that mental power might be more crucial and words were simply a tool used to focus the mind. He had a similar theory to wandless magic, since magic pre-dated wands, but he didn't know how he could really go about testing that.

xxxxx

In the corridor after lesson, Harry was jostled by someone rushing past him, knocking him to the side. He quickly made sure that his hair was covering the left side of his face again, having only partial success with the illusion spell that Dumbledore had suggested for him, and glanced after whoever it was that had barged past.

"Hermione Granger?" Harry wondered, recognising the bushy head of hair.

He glanced back over his shoulder and saw that Ronald Weasley was looking somewhat uncomfortable. Given the muffled sob he'd heard, he was betting that Weasley had said something to upset her. Harry also felt more than a little guilty about what he'd done in charms class, that had probably not helped in the least.

Deciding that, even if he wouldn't be her friend, he would be a bit nicer to Granger from then on, Harry tried to track down wherever it was the girl had disappeared off to. If the corridor had been empty, and no one would be able to see it, Harry would have unisoned with Reinforce and had her cast a Wide Area Search through him, tracking Granger down that way.

As it was, he found out later that Granger was apparently crying her eyes out in the loo. The first year girls, even if they didn't particularly like Hermione, had decided to gang up together against one red-haired menace and Weasley found himself the subject of several small jinxes and hexes for the rest of the day.

Still, Granger hadn't turned up again by the end of the day. Harry, after glancing through the doors and looking up and down the Gryffindor table and seeing no Granger, turned around and began heading for the girls' loo. Halloween left a bad taste in his mouth anyway, it was the day Voldemort had attacked his supposed family, killing his parents and leaving him an orphan.

Of course, since he knew that both of his parents were still alive, it made Harry wonder what actually happened that day. There must have been bodies or something, otherwise there wouldn't be a reason to declare James and Lily Potter dead, instead of missing, but that still didn't tell him what happened that night.

If he ever did manage to track them down, Harry's first question would be why? Why did they abandon him the way they had? What was the reason, the justification for throwing him to the wolves, so to speak? _Was_ there a reason? Harry really hoped there was a good one, but he would just have to wait and see, if he ever got such an opportunity that was.

Harry looked out of a window as he was passing by. He saw Quirrel leading a troll up to the castle, shrugged his shoulders and moved on...

Wait! Why the bloody heck was Quirrel leading a troll into the castle? Harry went back to the window, but Quirrel was already out of sight. Deciding that Granger could wait, Harry turned around and made his way to the nearest staircase and headed downwards.

He got to the Entrance Hall soon enough that he saw Quirrel stumble into the Great Hall. Now, really, that was suspicious as heck! Quirrel's entrance also caused maximum panic, but it seemed that was what he had intended to do with it. At the next opportunity, Harry was going to inform Dumbledore about this, the headmaster's reaction to such news would decide whether Harry would choose to trust him or not.

When Dumbledore's wand erupted into firecrackers and got everyone's attention, Harry slunk away. He could make his own way back to Ravenclaw tower, but Granger didn't currently know about the troll and was thus in danger. He wasn't going to go and hunt the troll down himself, but he would give a fellow student a warning.

xxxxx

_~Reinforce, do you remember what you said a while back?~_

_~Something that had you scolding me for 'tempting fate' I believe it was.~_

_~Yeah, that. Now, I'm starting to believe you've cursed me.~_

_~ :( Really Harry? You think I've cursed you?~_

_~Did you just manage to send me a sad face via telepathy? And either you cursed me, or I am fated to end up in weird situations.~_

_~ :D Do you like it? I've been a bit bored recently, so I started wondering just how versatile telepathy really is.~_

_~Now is not the time, Rein, really not the time.~_

Now, to fully understand this conversation, one would need a little more context. Harry's initial comment had been thought when he'd arrived on the right floor and seen a troll wander into the girls' bathroom. That conversation then followed as Harry rushed towards the girls' loo and threw the door open.

As it so happened, standing on the other side of the troll was Hermione Granger herself. She screamed, not surprisingly, at the sight of a bloody troll in the girls' rest room. Harry was thankful that the troll currently hid him from her view, as he cast Bloody Daggers at the troll's head.

It wasn't as effective as Harry would have liked it to be. While all four of the daggers he had cast had impacted the troll's head, they hadn't done a massive amount of damage. You see, troll brains are small, absolutely tiny in fact, so _something_ must take up all of that space inside their head. As it turns out, they have thick skulls, _very _thick skulls that are incredibly dense and resistant to damage.

The fact that the blades had actually cut through the troll's tough skin and taken gouges out of its skull was testament to how strong his Bloody Daggers were, even without being augmented by a device. Harry had, however, gained the trolls attention, and seriously pissed it off as well.

"Well, bugger. Reinforce, unison in!" He said, dodging to one side as the troll's club impacted the ground where he had just been standing. He did spare a glance for Granger, but her eyes seemed to be fixed on the troll, she also seemed to be going into shock but that would have to wait.

Dodging to his right side and looking over to Granger had had the side effect of getting Harry's hair out of his face. Seeing as he only intended to use the glamour when his face was going to be on display, and he had kind of gotten used to wearing his hair like he had, all of Harry's scars were now visible. Added to that, his hair was now silver due to the unison and both of his eyes were read, he looked rather demonic at present.

Anyway, with Reinforce bolstering his spells, he probably wouldn't have any issue with taking out the troll now. "Bloody Dagger!" He called out once more, now summoning a dozen of them into existence. They were driven forth with more force than Harry would have been capable of on his own, and the troll's head was... pulped.

Harry and Reinforce immediately ended the unison, hoping that Granger had been too distracted to really notice the change. The troll's head would take some explaining, maybe he could pass it off as accidental magic? No, what had been done was far too controlled and was limited to only the troll's head. Maybe Harry could get Granger and himself out of there before anyone turned up and started asking questions, that would probably be best.

The sound of footsteps heading their way soon put paid to that thought. Reinforce send him one more telepathic message, saying that they really had the best timing, before the door burst open and Mcgonagall hurried into the room with her wand out, followed by Snape and Quirrel.

Quirrel took one look at the troll, let out a 'manly' whimper, and melodramatically sat down an a toilet seat and clutched his heart. Now that he was actually looking at Quirrel, and ignoring just how pathetic a teacher he was, everything about him just seemed to scream 'fake'. Then again, Harry might be allowing the fact he knew Quirrel was the one who let the troll in colour his observations.

Snape bent over the troll, examining the stump of its neck where the head had previously been attached. Harry saw him murmur an incantation of some sort over it, then his brow furrowed in confusion. He cast the spell again, but he must have gotten the same result, because his expression didn't clear.

Mcgonagall had rounded on Harry and Hermione, her expression absolutely furious. If he was being completely honest, a small part of Harry's mind was expecting a billow of smoke to escape her nostrils any second now, she looked that angry.

"Explain. Now!" She demanded.

Harry shrugged his shoulders and answered her. "You might want to get Granger a calming draught first." He said. "The explanations simple enough though. Granger has apparently been crying in here since Charms, I think it had something to do with Ronald Weasley but I could be wrong. Anyway, when she didn't turn up for the feast, I went off to look for her. I didn't attend the feast myself because, well, Halloween isn't really my favourite day of the year, and I really didn't feel like joining in the celebrations." A stricken look appeared on Mcgonagall's face, probably believing that he didn't like Halloween because he believed it to be the date of his parents' deaths. He'd let her think that, he wasn't in the mood and he didn't have the inclination to correct her.

"Anyway, the troll ended up in the girls' bathroom and I heard a scream within. I rushed through the door to see the troll stood over Granger there and I attacked it. My spells didn't initially do much damage, but they did get the troll's attention. Once its attention was on me, I looked over to Granger and see her panicking. Obviously she didn't have the presence of mind to get out while she could, she was frozen in place, and I lashed out at the troll. I'm not sure how to explain what caused the troll's head to be so destroyed, but that is the result. Then, with impeccable timing, you and these other two professors burst through the door." Harry told her, a small voice in Harry's mind singing 'Here comes the cavalry, late as usual'.

"Miss Granger, is this true?" She asked. Harry thought that a little unfair at present, the girl looked really shaken up. Mcgonagall, it seemed, had paid no attention at all to Harry's suggestion of a calming draught. Hermione just nodded shakily, before she found her voice.

"Silver hair." She said, making Harry look at her closely.

"What?" Mcgonagall asked, wondering what silver hair had to do with anything. Sure, there was a streak of hair in Mr Potter's hair that was silver, but that was unlikely to be what she meant when she had said 'silver hair' just then. Mcgonagall also hadn't missed how Harry's attention had focused on Granger at that.

"Harry's hair, it turned silver. He shouted something at the troll and its head was destroyed, then his hair went back to normal." Hermione said, looking intently at Harry. For his own part, Harry was rather uncomfortable. The way that Granger was looking at him, he felt like he was under a microscope. He could see the intense curiosity in her eyes, and bit back a groan as he knew he would have to divert all of the questions she would undoubtedly be asking him.

Mcgonagall looked at Harry curiously. "Your grandmother was a Black." She muttered. "Maybe you had a dormant metamorphmagus trait that activated in a high stress situation. If I were you, I'd see Madam Pomfrey about any dormant or active skills you possess." She looked at Harry carefully again. "Twenty points to Ravenclaw for this, even if I really should be taking them off for putting yourself into such danger. Now, the feast is being finished in the house common rooms, so you should hurry along."

Harry held back a sigh, but Mcgonagall noticed it. "However, if you would prefer a less crowded and exuberant atmosphere, the kitchens can be found in the basement. Tickle the pear in the painting of a fruit bowl and it'll turn into a handle. I grant you both permission to eat there tonight. Now, please excuse me while I get rid of this thing."

Harry blinked at that, not having expected Mcgonagall to go out of her way for him like she just had. He shrugged his shoulders and headed out of the door. He was glad that Mcgonagall had passed the unison off as, what did she call it, a metamorphmagus skill? Harry would be reading up on that to see just how viable an excuse it was.

xxxxx

It was only when he was tickling the painted pair that Mcgonagall had told him about, that Harry realised that he wasn't as alone as he thought he was. Hermione Granger had seemingly followed him down here, for whatever reason he didn't know. He cursed mentally, thinking that Reinforce could have appeared and eaten with him in the kitchens alone.

Harry went through the door that appeared, Granger following him, and then he stopped. Granger, having almost walked into his back, peered over his shoulder to see why he'd stopped. Her eyes widened as she saw what Harry had seen and wondered what the heck she was looking at.

The kitchen was exactly the same shape as the Great Hall, which Harry thought might actually be directly above them. There were four tables there, the same size and arrangement as the house tables, and another table that was the same as the head table.

That wasn't what caught their attention though. Hurrying here, there and everywhere were small creatures. They were tiny, only a few feet high, and had large, tennis ball shaped eyes, floppy, bat-like ears and rather large feet. They all seemed to be wearing tea towels as togas or dresses as well.

_~That's new, I've never seen anything like them before.~_ Reinforce muttered inside Harry's mind.

_~Really? Nothing at all like them? Huh, that's surprising. Normally, you can find at least some equivalent to things I see. Nevertheless, I think I can make a few guesses. Judging by how they are in the kitchens, and the teachers are usually in the Great Hall for meals, I'd say these are the cooks. They probably also help Filch keep the castle clean. Hmm, are they a servant race of some kind?~_ Harry wondered.

"Hello there." Harry spoke up. "Is it at all possible that myself and Miss Granger can have a meal here? Professor Mcgonagall did give us permission. But we don't have a slip or anything like that. By the way, if you don't mind me asking, what are you all?"

A few seconds later, Harry wasn't entirely sure what happened. Whatever had occurred, the result was him and Granger being sat down with an absolute mountain of food before them. How it was cooked as quickly as it was, because Harry had not seen it at all before it appeared before them, was a mystery.

A few questions from Harry and these 'house elves' were telling him everything. They were apparently a servant race that got their jollies by cooking, cleaning and looking after people. They were, in Harry's opinion, a lazy person's dream come true.

"I'm sorry." Harry blinked, then looked across at Granger. She had her head bowed, looking at her hands that she was twisting in her lap. Harry raised an eyebrow at her, not having expected an apology. Maybe it was a result of the troll attack making her vulnerable, or something else, but she appeared to be on the verge of tears.

"May I ask what you are apologising for?" Harry asked carefully, his voice purposefully neutral.

"I've been getting really angry with you since the start of the year, because you kept beating me. Now, you've saved me when you didn't really need to. I'm sorry, okay?" She said, tears beginning to fall from her eyes. "All I've ever been is the buck-toothed, bushy-haired know-it-all. I've never had any friends before, so I did what I could, I read and I learned and I made sure I was the best that I could be in what I could do."

Harry really didn't know what to do with a crying girl. He gingerly put an arm around her, and was unprepared when she threw herself at him, knocking them both to the floor where she proceeded to sob into his robes. He awkwardly patted her back as she got everything off her chest that she needed to.

"Now, I come to Hogwarts and think 'maybe I'm not so alone', I think that maybe I can have magical friends. It's just the same though, muggle kids, wizards, witches, they're all alike. No one likes the know-it-all, not anyone. My house is full of lazy people that are into sports, the girls are always talking about boys and make up, while the one person who consistently beats me doesn't ever seem to be even _trying_." She cried.

"How do you do it? I've seen you with Sally-Anne Perks, even Daphne Greengrass and Blaise Zabini. How can you be both smart and have friends too? How... OH, I'M SORRY!" She shouted. Having knocked him to the floor, Hermione had also inadvertently knocked Harry's hair out of his face.

She had been crying so much that she'd only just noticed how scarred and deformed he was, scurrying backwards and away from him when she'd realised what she had done. She stared with open-eyed shock at the horrible wound he had, not taking her eyes off it until Harry had stood up and put his hair back into place.

"Granger, I don't really like you." Harry said. "I'm not being nasty, but that's what I personally feel. I actually don't like many people, I only have one person I trust implicitly and you'll find that Sally-Anne, Blaise and Daphne are all held at arms length from me. Now, while I am willing to be friendly with you, I think that it'd be better if something different was done about it." Harry thought about it for a moment before trying to reach the sorting hat with telepathy.

_~Can you hear me, hat?~_ He asked.

_~If this is Harry Potter, then yes, I can. May I know the reason why you are calling me like this? Not that I don't appreciate it, it does get a little boring in here by myself, but I am currently in the process of convincing Fawkes to spike Dumbledore's lemon drops with a potion that causing the drinker to randomly break out into giggles.~_ The hat replied.

_~How well do you know the school rules?~_ Harry asked it.

_~I am completely up to date on the rules, I'll have you know. Why do you ask, are you thinking of bending or even breaking a few? If you are then let me know or, even better, get me photos of any pranks you pull. It's in your genes, you're a prankster who just doesn't know it yet.~_ The hat told him.

_~How do you even know what genes are? Never mind that, is there any rule that says a student from one house can't enter the common room of another? Granger needs friends and I think that adding her to the Ravenclaw study group might be just the thing for her. Goodness knows she's intelligent. Why the bloody heck did you sort her into Gryffindor anyway?~_ Harry internally rolled his eyes.

_~I put her in Gryffindor because she wouldn't take no for an answer.~_ The hat grumbled. _~She is prime Ravenclaw material, but she was bound and determined to be a Gryffindor because, she thinks, that's where all the 'best' wizards come from. Bloody kids, don't know when to let me do my job. As for letting her into the Ravenclaw common room, sure, as long as she goes no farther than the common room she's fine.~_

_~Thanks hat.~_ Harry grinned at it mentally.

_~If you're really thankful then you'll help me prank the professors. I have yet to get the Potions Master, the Headmaster and the Deputy. Get any one of them and I'll owe you a favour, you hear me?~_

Harry chuckled. _~I hear you hat, and I'll see what I can do.~_

Cutting off the connection, Harry looked on Hermione Granger. "On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, the first year Ravenclaws get together for study sessions. I'll talk to them and I'm pretty sure that they'll let you join them. I, personally, don't attend the sessions, but you will have a chance to meet people more like you." Harry told her. "Also, the way that you wave your hand pretty much in a professor's face irritates a fair few people. I'd suggest letting other people have a chance to answer the question, before _calmly_ raising your hand if you know the answer."

xxxxx

After that, Granger did calm down a fair bit. She and Harry weren't friends, but they did have a bit of a friendly rivalry going on between them now. Unlike before, where Granger got angry at Harry knowing more than her, and Harry got irritated by her attitude, she seemed to have decided to use Harry as a benchmark for how good she should be. She no longer got angry at Harry getting a spell before she did, but him learning it did give her the determination to get to that point quickly too.

Harry also spoke to Sally-Anne and the other first years about including Hermione in their little study sessions. They were a bit hesitant at first, but they did soon accept Hermione into their ranks. Surprisingly, Blaise and Daphne both followed into the group as well.

Once Susan Bones, Hannah Abbot, Michael Corner and Ernie Macmillan also joined the group, it had to be moved out of the Ravenclaw common room and into a spare classroom. Harry, for some reason that even he didn't understand, acting as their representative, got permission from the four heads of house to make one room into a general study area.

Flitwick expanded the inside of the room, and then he taught Harry a few spells to transfigure desks and things into furniture, until they could source something more permanent that was. Flitwick had Harry cast the spells because, despite only having a first years control, he had noticed that Harry had absolutely massive reserves of mana and could overpower the spells to the point that the transfigurations were damn near permanent.

Sprout contributed a few plants for their room, ones with pleasant scents and beautiful colours that would bloom year round. A few bookshelves also found their way into the room, and a few books soon filled the shelves. Surprisingly, the books had been enchanted in such a way that they seemed to resist all damage, stains, spills and everything. They could also not be taken out of the room, ending up back on the shelves when anyone tried.

It was interesting to see people from various houses come together and study as one. Normally, the only time houses really got together was during class, and even then they were often paired or grouped up with other people in the same house as themselves.

xxxxx

"Hello again, Headmaster." Harry said, when he was back in Dumbledore's office. He had received a note from a student that morning to turn up after lessons and he had done so, wondering what Dumbledore had to say to him. The headmaster, Harry noticed, looked decidedly older than he had before, tired as well.

"Ah, hello to you too, Mr Potter." Dumbledore sighed. "I believe I owe you more of an apology than I believed I already did. I visited your relatives recently and, I must admit, I was appalled by what I found out during my visit. Unfortunately, the wards that have been erected there mean that it truly is the safest place for you, except when the one doing the damage is a close blood relative of yours."

Dumbledore sighed again. "I impressed on your relatives how disappointed I was with them, I think they got the message quite _clearly_." Harry was intrigued by the gleam that appeared in Dumbledore's eyes at that. "I also want to give you this. If at any time, you feel threatened while at your relatives then simply press down on it and I'll see what I can do. I might not reply immediately, maybe not even for a week depending on where I am and what I'm doing at the time, but I will come."

Harry looked at the small egg-shaped object on the table. Deciding to test it, He closed his hand around the object and applied pressure to it. A gentle pressure didn't seem to do anything, so he increased it until he felt the egg thing was about to be crushed in his hand. Dumbledore jerked upwards when it got to that point.

"Yes, I felt that. A good idea, testing it like you did." Dumbledore took the egg shaped trigger back off him. "Now, there are a few other spells and enchantments I'd like to add to this. I might even try and add some method for you to communicate a message to me, if I can think of a way. I'll give this to you before you return home for the summer, but I will ask that you keep it with you at all times during the holidays that you are away from the castle."

"Very well, I agree." Harry paused. "Actually, I agree on the condition that you allow me to get the enchantments you've placed on that object independently verified. How does that sound to you, headmaster?"

Dumbledore gave a wry grin. "I suppose that caution should be more than expected from you, given what I've found out about your childhood. Regardless of the mistakes of my past, ones that have caused you pain and for that I apologise, I agree to you having the object independently checked over. If I might make a suggestion, Gringotts' curse-breakers would probably be a good bet, and they will probably only charge a small fee."

"Thank you, professor." Harry bowed his head, before speaking up again. "Actually, can I ask you something without fear of punishment? He asked.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled brightly. "You just asked a question anyway, Mr Potter." He then nodded. "Nevertheless, unless the question is too private or something that really should not be answered, then I will, of course, allow it. This is a school after all, we are all here to teach and learn, are we not?"

"Thank you. I wish to express my suspicions about Professor Quirrel, sir. I saw him out of the window, leading a troll into the castle on Halloween. I find it to be an incredible coincidence at best sir... downright malicious at worst. Do you have any worries in regards to him, headmaster?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore frowned. "There is a reason for Professor Quirrel to bring a troll into the castle. I am not at liberty to tell you _why_ that is, but the possibility of him accidentally losing control of it before it was in position does exist. I have been keeping an eye on Quirinus this year, he has been, as I'm sure you've noticed, quite out of sorts. He taught Muggle Studies two years ago, then he went on a sabbatical to learn about Defence for a year. Now that he is back, he seems like a very different man." Dumbledore shook his head.

"Your concerns have been taken into consideration, Mr Potter. Still, without evidence of wrongdoing, there isn't really anything I can do. I will, however, keep a closer eye on Professor Quirrel and his activities all the same, you are not the only one to cast aspersions on his character." Dumbledore told him, before dismissing Harry.

As he turned to leave, a strange bird flew over to him. He had noticed the odd bird when he'd first walked in, but he had mostly ignored it. Now, as he was leaving, the bird flew over and pecked at Harry's hand. Harry flinched back, looking for damage, but it was apparently just to get his attention.

A complex magical circle appeared beneath the bird in mid-air, making Harry's eyes widen in recognition. Harry looked over to Dumbledore who was looking at the display with open curiosity. "It seems Fawkes, my phoenix friend here, likes you, but I wonder what that circle was all about."

_~I know~_ Reinforce chuckled in his mind. _~That phoenix just gave you permission to summon him!~_

Harry groaned. "Great, something else weird that happens to me. Haven't I had enough weird stuff yet?"


	10. November

AN: Okay, chapter ten here, and I'm already a thousand words into chapter eleven as I write this AN. Since Harry isn't on the Quidditch team, I had to think of something to write to make up words. HP&PS only has seventy something thousand words in it, and I don't want my story to be too short, so if anyone can think of something for Harry to get involved with, please let me know. I have some tentative plans for things that Harry can do on weekends or evenings, but nothing concrete yet. Also, no one has even come close to guessing what Reinforce is doing during the evenings, so you can keep guessing.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 10 - November

As November came calling at Hogwarts, the weather turned decidedly cold. The mountains surrounding the castle turned icy grey and the lake, though it hadn't frozen, had become as cold as ice. Frost covered the ground during Harry's morning exercises, not disappearing until later in the day, and Reinforce made sure that Harry took care of himself and kept himself warm.

Harry still practised his Belkan and Mid-Childan magic out at that spot that he'd sort of claimed, out of sight of the castle and near to both the Forbidden Forest and the Black Lake. He'd learned a charm that conjured ever-lasting bluebell coloured fire that he could stick in a jar, and now there were several jars of it all around him, keeping the worst of the cold away. He'd also cleared a space where he'd gathered some twigs and branches from the forest and lit them with the 'Incendio' spell.

Harry was, primarily, working on binding spells right now, things like 'Chain Bind' and 'Struggle Bind'. Those two, Harry thought, might be enough to bind the cerberus or other things like it. Given that Harry had now encountered both a three-headed 'mythical' beast and a troll while within the castle walls, he didn't think it would be too long before he encountered another physically powerful and magic resistant creature.

Of course, there was always the muggle myth which said that a cerberus would sleep when someone played music. Harry didn't know whether that was true in the Wizarding World or not, and his curiosity had fought with his desire to not risk himself and lost, he would _not_ be going back to the cerberus to test such a flimsy theory.

In class, they were beginning to learn more spells, now that they had the basic theory done, and Harry was eager to increase his repertoire of magic spells. In charms classes, they had learned colour changing charms, cleaning and repairing charms, locking and unlocking charms, and several others.

In Transfiguration, they were still learning to change physically similar things completely. Matches into needles, stools into chairs, spoons into forks, quills into knitting needles, all of those kinds of things. For the more advanced students, like Harry and Hermione, they were given tasks like turning small statues of birds into real birds, beetles into buttons, and other more advanced things like that.

Once Harry had successfully turned his bird statue into a bird, he tried turning other things into birds as well. Apparently, because the statue was already in the form of a bird, it was easier to turn it into one than anything else would be, but the spell did work for other things.

Of course, once Harry had mastered the 'Avifors' spell, he tried using some of the other spells from the same group of transfigurations to master them. 'Lapifors', the rabbit version of 'Avifors', proved to be about the same difficulty as the bird version of the spell. 'Snufflifors', the mouse version of the spell, seemed simpler than the rabbit version for some reason, maybe it had something to do with a mouse having a smaller brain and thus less complicated thought patterns.

Harry's 'Draconifors' was rather impressive, even if it was the hardest of all of them to learn. Demonstrating that spell to Mcgonagall had earned him a lot of points, and a pout from Granger as well. His miniature dragon, it was only about two feet long, could actually breathe fire! It was the hardest transfiguration out of its group for several very good reasons. First was its size, it as the largest thing Harry could currently transfigure. The second was the complexity of its thoughts, it had the largest brain as well as the largest body. The third thing that made it difficult was its biology, rather than having four legs or two legs and wings, it had four legs _and_ wings, making it more complex. The fourth and final thing that made it difficult was the inherent magical nature of a dragon, it _did_ breathe fire after all.

Harry was rather pleased with his progress, and he practised regularly so he could cast the spells accurately and with speed. He thought, and Reinforce agreed with him, that Transfiguration could well be one of the most important things in higher level duelling and fights. Anyone can cast spells at someone else, having them travel in straight lines like bullets, but having several creatures attacking someone _while_ you are casting spells at them, well, it would prove more difficult to defend against at least.

Harry's other classes were also progressing nicely, even if he thought that Charms and Transfiguration were being the most productive so far. Snape's many questions still continued in Potions, but simply following a recipe didn't really teach anyone much about the class. History of Magic was just as boring as it had been at the beginning of the year. Astronomy wasn't teaching Harry anything that he didn't already know or could find out from Reinforce. Herbology was fairly interesting, but Harry wasn't very excited by plants, especially when it was just the really tame ones first years had to deal with.

In Defence Against the Dark Arts, Harry continued to keep an eye on Quirrel, as suspicious of him as he was, but nothing really seemed to be happening there. The man continued to stutter his way through theory, occasionally allowing the class to cast a few spells. They learned the knock back jinx from him, as well as a rather disturbing spell that was officially called the curse of bogies, but was more often referred to as a bat-bogey hex. That spell made mucus come out of someone's nose, grow wings and get in their face. Disgusting, it certainly was, but it would be a damn good distraction if nothing else.

Harry's illusions were also starting to show decent results. Granted, his spells lasted a half hour at best, not to mention looking more than a little fuzzy, but it was definitely progress. Because, without looking, he couldn't tell whether the illusion had faded or not, Harry kept wearing his hair in front of his face to hide his scars, but he hoped that one day he would be able to wear his hair differently and not show such deformity to people.

Reinforce had asked him what magical solutions there might be to fix skin, even if healers had told him there was nothing that could be done, and Harry had looked into it. Essence of Dittany and Murtlap Essence were supposedly good for scars and things like that, but they were most effective when the injury was fresh. Since Harry's scars were months old, there wasn't much that could be done.

Once that had been confirmed, Reinforce then tried to get Harry to simply accept his scars as a part of him. He might not be vain, but those injuries had left a mark on more than just Harry's appearance, and he'd rather not be gawked at because of it. Then again, with how much he was already being stared at, being the 'Boy-Who-Lived' and all of that, there probably wouldn't be much of a difference.

xxxxx

Of course, along with the colder weather, Quidditch matches between houses were soon going to start as well. Gryffindor and Slytherin had booked the Quidditch pitch so much that Harry was beginning to get used to glancing out of the window, or across from where he practised his Belkan and Mid-Childan magic, and seeing the green or red clad figures riding brooms around the pitch.

The first match of the season, between the lions and snakes, was on Saturday, and tensions were at an all time high. Gryffindor's team was apparently the same as their previous year's team. The exception was their seeker who had graduated, the replacement being a second year named Cormac Mclaggen.

Harry didn't like Mclaggen. The boy was a braggart, loud and boisterous, not qualities that Harry was fond of. He well remembered the first time he had met Mclaggen and the boy had loudly said that he could lend Harry a hand, become good mates, and show him a few things.

Of course, because this happened in the library, he was soon chased out by Madam Pince, much to Harry's gratitude. Harry had then avoided Mclaggen like he did with Ronald Weasley and Draco Malfoy. All three of those boys seemed to want to befriend the 'Boy-Who-Lived', not Harry Potter, and that wasn't something that Harry wanted. Reinforce might encourage him to be more friendly with other people, but she did agree with him that those three were trouble.

Speaking of friends, Harry had become a little closer with Sally-Anne, Blaise and Daphne. Sally-Anne had managed to get Harry to attend one study session a week, where he tended to answer questions from those who were struggling rather than actually do his own homework there, since he tended to do his homework as soon as he got it.

Sally-Anne was coming out of shell more and more, the shy girl that she had been becoming more of a memory than her actual personality. She did still have her moments of shyness, when she was overwhelmed by something, but they weren't particularly common, and becoming even less so as she learned to cope.

Blaise was rather laid back, or at least he appeared to be. Harry had seen how neat and elegant his handwriting was, even if his work wasn't the best at times, and thought it was an accurate representation of the boy himself. Even when he didn't know something, he always appeared calm and unruffled, making him seem a lot more intelligent than he actually was.

Oh, he was no idiot, most definitely not, but he was not amongst the absolute best in the year. Blaise was also an absolute whiz with Wizarding Law and all of the loopholes in it. Harry had once had an intriguing conversation with him on the laws about Animagi.

Most of the time, practically every time, an animagus had some kind of distinguishing feature or features. Mcgonagall's cat form had her glasses as markings around the eyes for example. Sometimes though, albeit rarely, the animagus form of a person had no distinguishing marks like that. That really threw the animagus registry into a bit of a pickle, and the many ways that they'd tried to correct that were rather amusing.

Harry's other Slytherin acquaintance, Daphne, was considered the most likely candidate for the next 'Ice Queen' of Slytherin. Her expression was very well controlled, rarely showing any emotion at all, making it rather difficult to figure out what she was thinking. She was also very Slytherin in that she would do something to her own benefit, regardless of who or what was involved in it.

An example of that would be the study group itself. Draco Malfoy had absolutely refused to attend a single session, saying that he didn't want to associate with mudbloods and blood-traitors at all. The reaction when he'd said that was actually rather surprising to Harry.

Mudblood, it turned out, was a highly offensive thing to say to those who were muggle-born. Blood-traitor, was also a rather offensive thing to say to those who didn't ascribe to blood purity. The fight that had broken out in the corridor, well, Harry had been rather taken aback by it.

Granger also attended these sessions, and she tended to help out other people like Harry did. She did work on her own homework as well, but she really was a very intelligent girl, and only rarely needed to look something up or ask for assistance.

She invariably asked Harry for his help when she did need to work on something, which kind of simultaneously flattered and mildly irritated Harry. Daphne's friend, Tracey, was amazing at Potions, so Harry tried to make her the go to person for Potions, which worked for most people, but Hermione kept asking Harry.

Harry _was_ the go to person for Astronomy and Transfiguration, but the other subjects were separated out to different people. Tracey Davis, like has already been said, was the Potions girl. Padma Patil was the Charms girl, Ernie Macmillan was the History boy, Neville was the Herbology boy, which was a great boost to his confidence, and Hermione was often asked to look over essays as well.

Reinforce did encourage Harry to expand his group of friends, as he only _really_ had her that was in that group, but having a large group of friendly acquaintances was a good step in the right direction. Harry would never be a social butterfly, but he wasn't going to be a shut-in either with the way things were going.

xxxxx

The day before the Quidditch match, there was a staff meeting. Staff meetings were once a month, the first one being at the beginning of October, giving the new first years a chance to settle into the castle. The previous meeting had been a simple 'Who seems to have forgotten everything they've ever been taught?', 'How are the first years settling in?', 'Is there anything that needs our attention?', and other things like that.

This time, Dumbledore specifically asked about one student in particular. Now, it might not be usual for a headmaster to take a significant interest in a student's life, but this one was rather unique. Harry Potter was, well, he was a bit of a mystery. He was rather famous for one thing, add his bad home life and how good he seemed to be at magic and, well, curiosity was more than understandable.

Snape was the first to speak up. "He's hiding something." He said, his expression a cross between frustration and something else that wasn't easily identifiable.

"Oh?" Dumbledore looked at his Potions professor. "Would you care to elaborate on what makes you think that and what this secret might be?"

Snape shot him a look. "That troll on Halloween." That got everyone's attention. "Minerva might believe it was accidental magic that blew its head off, but I'm certain it wasn't. For one, he didn't actually say it _was_ accidental magic, just that he's 'not sure how to explain it'. That implies he didn't know what it was, but it could also mean he'd rather not think on how to word his explanation."

A few people began to speak up, saying that Severus was looking for something that wasn't there, but he cut them off. "That's not all though. I tried to identify just what had destroyed the troll's head, whether it _was_ an explosion of some sort, or an impact or something else. There were signs of a sharp edge being applied to what was left of the neck, like someone had been hacking at it with a sword. Also, there was residue of two spells, two spells that were _exactly the same_, except for the second one having more power behind it that is."

"Really? That's interesting. What spell was used on the troll then?" Flitwick asked. "I suppose that I can believe that Harry managed to do it, the amount of power he has in his reserves is unreal." The tiny Charms professor shook his head in wonder. "An overpowered spell, or at least a _drastically_ overpowered spell, could probably have done it, I guess."

"That's just the thing, I have no idea what spell was used." Snape told him. "As you are all aware, I have a rather extensive knowledge of spells, even ones that don't fall into the category of 'light', but I didn't recognise it at all. As far as I _could_ tell, the spell manifests itself as a group of some sort of small physical objects, maybe daggers or something, that are then banished with great speed and power at the target."

Mcgonagall chipped in then. "That sort of effect is possible, and I suppose Mr Potter could have done something like that. He's top of his year so far in my lessons, Miss Granger being the closest behind him. He has shown himself capable of inanimate to animate transfigurations, so an inanimate to inanimate bunch of daggers isn't too far out there. As for banishing charms... Filius?"

Flitwick then spoke up. "He has shown that, like in Minerva's classes, he is a very good student. Also like in Minerva's classes, he is first in his year with Miss Granger the closest behind him, seemingly determined to catch up to him. As you know, banishing charms aren't taught until fourth or fifth year, but that's more about mental focus than the magical strength and control needed to cast the spell. I know that he has purchased all seven of the Standard Book of Spells series, so he could easily have read up on the spell."

"He has all seven of the series, does he? Has Mr Potter shown an interest in any other subjects?" Dumbledore asked Harry's head of house.

"Arithmancy and Ancient Runes are both things he's been reading in the common room. It seems that muggle maths comes easily to Mr Potter, making Arithmancy a comfortable subject with him. I did ask him about the runes and he told me that he had an interest in Egyptian and Norse mythology before he came to Hogwarts, and he learned a bit of hieroglyphics and Futhark before coming. Oh, he also reads books on illusions as well, but I don't know much more about that." Flitwick told them, relating what he knew about Harry's extracurricular reading.

Sprout then spoke up. "I've heard a fair bit about this study group that Mr Potter is somehow involved with. My badgers have mentioned the variety of books that Mr Potter tends to have nearby, books on all subjects apparently."

Dumbledore bowed his head. "His interest in illusions is understandable." That seemed to make the professors that didn't know about Harry's scars curious. "Suffice to say, there is a reason that Mr Potter's hair covers half his face." He told them, saying no more on the subject.

"How much does he know about runes?" Babbling spoke up, Vector nodding beside her. The two of them didn't often have anything to contribute to staff meetings, neither of them being heads of house or teachers of core subjects. Hearing about a first year already expressing interest in their subjects was something that caught their attention.

"I've seen Mr Potter writing things down about combining runes together." Flitwick said with a shrug. "You must forgive me, runes isn't something I have much experience with, but Mr Potter did once say he liked them because 'they were logical'. He said that, as long as you know the rules of a language, runes can be used to do almost anything, as long as the rules were followed. As for Arithmancy, he has been looking into spell matrices and how spells are constructed. It's a subject that seems to frustrate him, but I don't know any more than that."

"I see. Severus, you mentioned a secret, is there anyone that Mr Potter might confide in?" Dumbledore asked.

It was Flitwick who answered. "He speaks with muggle-born Sally-Anne Perks in Ravenclaw, I know that much. He doesn't seem particularly close to her though, and that's all I know about his friendships really."

Mcgonagall added her bit. "He is on semi-friendly terms with Hermione Granger, one of mine, but like Filius, I couldn't tell you much more. I'm a bit thankful that Miss Granger has him, even as little as she does, as she hasn't connected very well with her house mates. I understand, also, that Mr Potter is responsible for her inclusion in that study group that spans all four houses."

Severus then surprised the other professors. "Potter is on speaking terms with two of my snakes as well." That earned a few surprised looks from those there. "Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass, both of them are from neutral families, but I wouldn't say that Potter would 'confide' in either of them."

Professor Sprout seemed a little put out that her own house, one known for being friendly to everyone, seemed to be the only one that didn't count one of theirs a friend of Harry's. Then again, with the badgers, it was all or nothing. If Harry had befriended one Hufflepuff, then he would have had to befriend at least three more at the same time, and he seemed to reserved for that.

"So, in conclusion, Harry Potter has some kind of secret. We don't know what it is, nor does he seem likely to tell anyone about it, not even another student. He doesn't have many friends, if any, but he is at least on good terms with a fair number of people. He's also a rather good student, a high achiever, and no one really has anything bad to say about him. That everything?" Babbling asked, getting this analysis of Harry Potter over and done with. She was interested in what he was doing with runes, and she wondered if she could meet with him and talk about it. Sharing a glance with Septima, it seemed both were thinking the same thing.

"I believe that is everything. Unless someone else has something to add, that is." Dumbledore said, looking around at the other professors there. When no one had anything to say, the conversation moved on to other things. Marcus Flint, it seemed, was looking like he would fail the year if he kept up his 'progress' as it was. Honestly, Hogwarts had not had a student fail a year in almost two centuries, this needed sorting out!

The staff meeting also included a few other topics, things like the average score in classes, what students might need a tutor or a little help to boost their grade a bit, which students needed extra work prepared for them as they were advancing faster than the rest of the class, which students were being troublemakers, the Weasley twins had an entire fifteen minutes devoted to them, and things like that.

When the staff meeting was over and done with, Snape stayed behind to speak with Dumbledore. Both of them had noticed something about Harry Potter's 'secret', or at least they thought they had.

"Headmaster, I find it rather coincidental that when I find evidence of an unknown spell, and I don't buy that it was a mix of transfiguration and banishing charm that came up in the meeting, it just so happens that something else turns up. Miss Granger mentioned silver hair, and we both know that is what we saw when attempting Legilimency on Potter." Snape said.

Dumbledore nodded his head. "Indeed, it does seem like quite a coincidence. Unfortunately, there's not a lot we can do to find an answer for it. As a 'secret', I hardly think that Mr Potter will just tell us it if we ask. We both know that Legilimency is out too. Apart from him noticing it immediately, he's enough of an Occlumens to keep us out at least temporarily, long enough to break it off at least."

"I could-" Snape began.

"No, Severus, you are not to try dosing Mr Potter with Veritaserum." Dumbledore admonished. "Apart from making him aware of what we were doing, and completely destroying any trust he might have in us, we don't know what would happen. What if this 'secret' of his is the result of an outside influence that... didn't appreciate us trying to find out about it and reacted violently because of our prying. No, Mr Potter's secret has not, so far, shown itself to be a danger to the students or staff, so I think it's best to just not tickle a sleeping dragon."

"Outside influence? Do you believe that Potter has made a deal with demons or spirits or something?" Snape asked. "Didn't you put tracking charms on his raven so that you could know who he was in contact with? He's your _golden boy_, so of course you would want to know where he was and who he was involved with."

Dumbledore looked a few decades older at that and he sagged slightly. "The tracking charms on the raven were removed. I'd rather not try and put any on Mr Potter himself, I'm now sure he'd notice immediately. While it would help me keep him safe, he would probably just remove them and his trust in me would all but disappear."

"The charms were removed? Detecting such charms is far beyond a first year's skill level, so how would he know they were there? Did you try putting a tracking charm on anything else, clothing for example? You wouldn't have to cast such a charm in front of him then, and it would let you know if he really did detect your spell work."

Dumbledore nodded his head. "Yes, I tried that. The tracking charm that I had put on his clothing when the elves were doing the washing has also been removed. Thankfully, it seems Mr Potter is unaware of who actually cast the spells, but he does seem capable of detecting the charm and recognising it for what it is."

"Interesting." Snape muttered. "What about his wand, what do we know about that? You thought he would get the other one, the opposite of the Dark Lord's, but did he? I know that you and Ollivander write to each other, and he always tells you what wand each new first year has bought from him."

"His wand is _not_ the brother wand to Voldemort's. Mr Potter's wand is fourteen inches long, made of cherry wood and has a yatagarasu feather core. It specialises in illusions and healing, but is more than capable of other branches of magic without any major negatives." Dumbledore told Severus, having remembered the rather curious wand and its components.

"Yatagarasu feather? What's that and doesn't Ollivander only use three wand cores: dragon heart string, unicorn tail hair and phoenix feather?" Snape asked. "I heard that Garrick Ollivander disdains other wand cores apart from the three he uses, why would he have something else?"

"A yatagarasu is a three-legged crow demon that can be found in Japan. Interestingly, cherry wood wands are also favoured by Japanese witches and wizards. As for Garrick only using those three wand cores, it's because he went travelling in his youth and found those three to be the best he could find. He did not just get rid of the wands he'd made with other cores though, it's simply rare for one of them to find its wizard." Dumbledore explained.

"Japan, Japan..." Severus muttered, something nudging his memory. "Wasn't there something going on there recently? A year or so ago, I believe. Something, but it was never discovered what, had the Japanese ministry in something of a frenzy. Weird magical signatures, dense ambient mana, obviously magical things that had their version of the Obliviators running around frantically to cover it up."

"Hmm, yes, that's right. The Japanese magical community is largely comprised of non-humans, kitsunes for example, and they're taught the memory charm rather early on in school, so it is rather rare that anything there risks the exposure of the Wizarding World. The ICW didn't find out much either, which rather frustrated a fair few members. It seems that whatever happened in Japan will remain a mystery." Dumbledore chuckled. "Who knows? Maybe Mr Potter's secret is connected to what happened in Japan."

Snape snorted. "Even I think that unlikely in the extreme, why would something in Japan have any sort of connection to Potter?"

xxxxx

_~This sport is kinda weird.~_ Reinforce telepathically conveyed to Harry.

_~I agree. Either you're right in the thick of things, or you're doing pretty much nothing at all.~_ Harry replied, his eyes flickering up to the seekers circling high in the sky.

The game was strange to both Harry and Reinforce. Given that Harry had equated it with magical football, it didn't really bear any similarities to the muggle sport. The chasers and keepers made Harry connect them a little bit to flying basketball, The bludgers and beaters made Harry think a little of dodgeball, and Harry wasn't at all sure what to compare the seekers to.

The points also didn't make much sense to him. A chaser scoring with the quaffle was worth ten points, completely understandable, but the snitch was worth one hundred and fifty? That was just so imbalanced as to be ridiculous. If the snitch was worth fifty points or something like that, Harry thought it would be better, but that was just his personal opinion.

_~You tracked the snitch down yet?~_ Harry asked Reinforce.

_~Yep, it's circling the middle hoop at the Gryffindor end, near ground level.~_ The Unison Device replied.

Harry focused on where Reinforce had mentioned, and saw the snitch exactly where she said it was. Harry looked skywards, wondering if either of the seekers had noticed it yet, but neither of them had. A cry went up from the crowd, bringing attention to the Slytherin end as Katie Bell scored a goal.

_~He's really not subtle when he thinks people aren't looking at him, is he?~_ Reinforce asked.

_~No, he's really not.~_ Harry mentally sighed.

Quirrel, standing with the professors, was glaring in Harry's direction whenever he thought that nobody was looking at him. Harry wondered if it was because he'd been the one to stop Quirrel's troll on Halloween or some other reason, but it did make Harry incredibly wary of the man.

He didn't think that Quirrel would do anything during the Quidditch match, or at least nothing too obvious, but he still had his guard up anyway. Harry had found the basic shield spell that wizards relied on, 'Protego', but he couldn't yet cast it. Apparently, as he got older, his magic control would improve and he would be able to cast it. Right now though, it was beyond him, and would probably remain so for a year or so. When he was twelve, a second year, he might be able to pull off a weak 'Protego', but right now all he really had available to him was a Panzerschild.

Having seen a picture of what a 'Protego' was supposed to look like, Harry and Reinforce thought they might be able to use a Mid-Childan Round Shield as a stand in, they were the same shape and one might at a pinch be able to mistake one for the other. Of course, a 'Protego' shield was one colour in particular, red, whereas Mid-Childan and Belkan magic tended to be the magic colour of the one who cast it.

An example of magic colour was Reinforce's purplish black, Fate Testarossa's yellow and Nanoha Takamachi's pink. Harry's magic colour, like Reinforce's, was purplish black. Reinforce wondered if that was a coincidence, or if there was some reason that Harry's magic colour was the same as hers.

Anyway, it was possible, but somewhat flimsy, that they could pass off a Round Shield as a 'Protego', but that didn't mean they wouldn't try it, it would be easier than trying to pass off a triangular Panzerschild as a 'Protego' at least. Of course, to pass it off as a 'Protego', Harry would first have to learn the spell which he hadn't yet, but would hopefully be able to before too long.

_~Oh? It looks like the big guy has joined the spectators.~_

Harry's eyes flickered over to what Reinforce had caught out of the corner of his eye and saw that Hagrid, holding a large pair of binoculars, had joined the crowd watching the Quidditch match. Harry let a small smile show as he shook his head gently.

Hagrid wasn't a bad person. He was a bit, well, simple, and he couldn't keep a secret to save his life, but he was definitely big-hearted. Harry had gone down to his hut on more than one occasion, but when Hagrid tried to tell him stories of his parents, he would instead ask about the creatures in the Forbidden Forest or something else.

Hagrid really was a treasure trove of information on creatures, he lived and breathed animals, whether they be as mundane as a pigeon or as magical as a dragon. Harry had heard a fair bit about unicorns from him, even if Hagrid preferred things with more fangs, poison, claws and various appendages of possible death, and Harry liked the sound of the pure creatures.

Unicorns, apparently, started off a golden colour when they were foals, something Harry hadn't expected, and didn't turn white until they were older. They were very magical creatures as well, their horns and tail hairs often being used in regenerative and healing potions. Their blood was, Hagrid said, even more potent than anything else, but there was also a very big warning against taking it.

Unicorn blood would apparently grant an extended lifespan to any that drank it, healing a large number of injuries in an instant, but the moment the blood touched the drinker's lips, they would be cursed forever. That was the price paid for slaying something so pure and innocent just to save yourself.

_~Harry! Look out!~_ Reinforce cried, making Harry blink and look in front of him.

Heading his way was the Slytherin seeker, Terrance Higgs. Harry caught the expression on his face, panic. It seemed that, from what Harry could see, Higgs had lost control of his broom, the way he was yanking at it and it wasn't changing course lent credence to that theory.

Harry threw himself backwards, out of the way of Higgs who crashed into the stands. Harry didn't have time to recover though, as he was forced to dodge two bludgers that came right at him. What the bloody heck was that? Okay, it could passed off as the Slytherin losing control of his broom, but the bludgers as well? Someone who didn't believe that they were tampered with would have to get their heads checked.

Anyway, it was just as Harry was getting up from throwing himself aside that Mclaggen got his hands on the snitch, ending the game. Harry looked down at Higgs, then he turned and looked in Quirrel's direction. He caught the ugly and hate-filled look on Quirrel's face, but then he saw Snape who was stood behind Quirrel.

What was it that Dumbledore had said the last time Harry was in his office? Harry was not the only one to cast aspersions on Quirrel's character, wasn't it. Was Professor Snape another person who had his doubts about Quirrel? Harry hoped to hell that Quirrel would do something to get himself kicked out of the castle before it cost Harry his life.


	11. Christmas

AN: Okay, chapter eleven and christmas is here. Sorry to all of you who didn't guess what Reinforce was making for Harry, but here it is. Now, I know some people are going to talk about how possible something like that is, so here's my justification: 1, Colin Creevy in second year got hold of a potion to make his ordinary picture of Harry and Lockhart move. 2, the taking memories thing with the runes is inspired by pensieves. 3, the number of pages thing is just something I made up, but I don't think that's too far out there. It's more like the book has a finite number of pages but only shows so much information on the ones it currently has and everything else is in the book's 'memory' as it were.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 11 - Christmas

Since the first Quidditch match Harry had ever attended had almost ended with him being impaled by a broomstick and bludgeoned by two heavy flying balls, Harry had made a small vow to himself not to play the sport. Apart from the risk of injury and potentially death, it just wasn't his kind of thing.

He decided to not attend the other Quidditch matches that were going to happen. He wasn't interested in the sport, so why would he sit there and watch it? Instead, Harry took the opportunity to root around in the library look things up, furthering his magical knowledge.

It wasn't like the next Quidditch match was any time soon though, there were six matches a year, once a month with the first in November. That meant that the next Quidditch match would in December, before the Christmas holidays started. Harry did wonder why there were so few matches a year, especially seeing as the house teams sometimes practised three times a week plus.

Anyway, after November came and went, the cold really started to set in. About half-way through December, the lake froze solid, meaning that Harry could no longer swim in it. Well, Harry shouldn't really have been swimming in water as cold as it had been up until now, but he had anyway.

The snow and cold combined did make Harry's daily exercises more difficult, but he pressed on regardless. A few people had even commented on Harry's physical fitness, seeing as the only ones who really exercised at all were the Quidditch players, and even then they didn't do as much physical exercise because flying a broom didn't exactly need bulging muscles.

Mail became less frequent at Hogwarts, the few owls that managed to battle their way through the cold weather having to be nursed back to health by Hagrid. Harry had forbidden Loki from even trying to make his way through the bad weather, and the raven had taken to perching on the end of Harry's bed instead of staying in the Owlery.

The Weasley twins had made use of the snow, using it in various pranks and the like. They were punished for charming several snowballs to follow Quirrel around and bounce off the back of his turban. Harry, not liking Quirrel himself, and thinking the charm the Weasley's had used was interesting, got the two of them to teach him it.

That had the side effect of Fred and George Weasley believing that Harry was an aspiring prankster and taking him 'under their wing' as it were. Harry wasn't a prankster, but he didn't mind the twins doing what they did, it allowed him to find out about spells and potions that he wouldn't normally have come across.

It was during December that Draco Malfoy _finally_ managed to corner Harry. He had been out on the grounds, returning to the castle from his spot where he practised Belkan and Mid-Childan magic, when he had found his way blocked by Malfoy and his two bookends.

Harry hadn't spoken up, merely looking from one Slytherin to the next, waiting for them to do something. He'd looked at the lumps of muscle, and they really were surprisingly muscled for eleven year olds, stood either side of the boy with pale blonde hair and pointed features.

They seemed to be waiting for Harry to do something, but he didn't move or say a word. The silence seemed to become awkward for the Slytherins, but Harry was simply amused by their awkwardness. Of course, it couldn't last forever, and Draco Malfoy eventually spoke up.

"Hello, Potter. I'm Draco Malfoy, from the House of Malfoy." The blonde boy started pompously, puffed up like one of those tropical birds with eye watering colours that draw attention to themselves. "I would like to offer you my friendship. I can help you to steer clear of the... less desirable members of our society, and you will find that being allied with the Malfoy family will open many doors for you." He then stuck his hand out for Harry to shake.

Harry looked at the hand for a moment, before he replied. "I thank you for the offer, Heir Malfoy, but I think that I will have to respectfully decline. I prefer to make my own decisions, based upon my own impressions of people. I mean no offence by this, but your attitude tends to cause friction with people, and I'd rather avoid riling anyone up. So, thank you for the offer, but no, thank you."

Harry had stepped around Malfoy then and headed up to the castle. Harry had thought that he'd handled that rather well, all things considered. The next time he saw Draco Malfoy, it proved that, as far as Draco was concerned, he really hadn't. Draco believed that Harry had snubbed him, and swore that Harry would regret spurning his offer of friendship like that.

Harry hadn't much cared, it didn't really change much after all. Harry still avoided Malfoy, Weasley and Mclaggen as a matter of course, the latter being easier as he wasn't even in the same year or house. Mclaggen had made several attempts to 'join' the first years' study group, but each attempt had failed.

He had said that he, a second year, would be more than capable of helping them all out with everything. Harry had thought that he just wanted to make himself look important and set a small flock of his transfigured birds on the boy. Harry had gotten detention for that, but he believed it was worth it. The next time that Mclaggen had tried the same thing, it hadn't been birds Harry had set on him, it had been dragons.

Weasley wasn't too difficult to avoid in lesson, Harry tended to take the end of a table as his seat, and Sally-Anne tended to sit next to him. Given that, even with pretty much all of the first years all studying together, there was still minimal mingling of houses during class, this wasn't overly difficult.

Avoiding Draco Malfoy was more irritating though, he always seemed to be in the way of wherever Harry was going next. It was well known now that Harry tended to go out on the grounds for his free afternoons and evenings, many even thought this was where he practised magic, and Malfoy always seemed to be between him and the Entrance Hall.

Fred and George Weasley came through for him here, showing him three exists from the castle and into the grounds other than the main doors. They did look at him oddly for some reason whenever they were around him, but since they didn't ask any questions, he just let it be, whatever 'it' was.

Harry did look up warming charms for the winter, and he most definitely wasn't the only one. While the common rooms and the Great Hall had roaring fires that students could warm up with, the hallways were freezing cold and icy winds rattled the classroom windows. Snape's classes in the dungeons were almost unbearable, the students huddling close the fires underneath their cauldrons to keep warm.

Seeing that the warming charm was beyond the magic control of a first year, Harry had taken to keeping half a dozen jars of those blue flames in his school bag, taking them out and placing them around himself whenever he was in the library or somewhere that he could sit down. Hermione, the only other first year who had seemed to have learned that particular spell, also started to keep a few jars of fire nearby.

Seeing as Hermione's parents were muggles, Harry had suggested she take a few jars of bluebell flames home with her so her parents could see what she was doing in school. Hermione's eyes had lit up at that and she had began to search out spells she could cast at school but still let her parents see the results.

She ended up with various animation charms, enchanted objects and potions that she could take with her. When she found that her animation charms only lasted a day or so, because she wasn't skilled enough nor had she the magic control to make them last longer, she asked Harry to cast the spells, overpowering them with his vast supply of mana to compensate and make them semi-permanent.

One potions lesson, Draco Malfoy did loudly mention that he was 'So sorry for all those people who have to stay at Hogwarts because they're not wanted at home'. That made Harry wonder how Malfoy knew about him not wanting to go home, because he'd told no one at all about the Dursleys.

Nevertheless, Malfoy was right, Harry would be staying at the castle over winter break. He and Reinforce had toyed with the idea of taking a holiday somewhere together. There was an administrated world within one personal teleport's range of Earth, which would allow them to then travel to anywhere in the known universe on a public flight, but they'd decided against that.

Harry had also considered getting Reinforce to take the pair of them to Japan for the winter. Reinforce had this odd look on her face whenever she mentioned the people from there, Hayate Yagami in particular. It was like she both longed to see them, but also wanted to keep her distance for some reason.

It seemed that not many people were staying at Hogwarts over the Christmas holidays. The Weasleys were staying, the twins told Harry that their mother and father were taking a trip to Romania to visit another one of their brothers, Charlie, who worked with dragons on a reserve. Harry had caught a look at the list Mcgonagall had been taking names down on, and saw that very few others were staying in the castle either.

One thing that had surprised Harry was seeing Ronald Weasley in the library recently. He overheard the redhead mention Nicholas Flamel to Seamus Finnegan, who was also with him, and that made Harry curious. Harry knew who Nicholas Flamel was, having heard that name in the muggle world he had realised that Flamel wasn't exactly recent, and he'd looked into famous witches and wizards from history.

Flamel, it turned out, was an alchemist. Now, Harry didn't really understand some things about magic, Alchemy being another one. The subject seemed to be a mix between Transfiguration and Potions. It included the changing of an objects physical material and shape, like Transfiguration, but also mixed things together to get results, but used metals and solids to create alloys and the like, unlike Potions which used primarily liquid materials with solids added to it.

What made Nicholas Flamel so famous was that he had created an object that was known as the Philosopher's Stone. Now, no one really knew how the stone was made, nor everything that it did, apart from two things. It was confirmed that the stone extended someone's lifespan, purportedly forever but that couldn't exactly be confirmed, as Nicholas and his wife were over six hundred years old.

Another confirmed thing about the Philosopher's Stone was that it could turn any metal into pure gold. Harry supposed that, for those who coveted wealth, such a thing was desirable. It was interesting that, according to Reinforce, silver was a lot more rare than gold was in the universe.

Harry was thinking about taking a holiday that coming summer, to another planet rather than just somewhere on Earth. Reinforce could help him translate languages, so he had that covered. He could get his money at Gringotts converted into silver bars, he'd asked the goblins that by sending a letter with Loki, so getting a hold on silver wasn't an issue.

What was an issue was the fact that he was eleven, and that would raise a number of questions if he was wandering around by himself. Reinforce couldn't wander about, she _was_ a well-known person to the TSAB, so she couldn't exactly walk about in the open. Harry had wondered whether there was a way to disguise someone with magic using enchantments in the Wizarding World, and was looking into that. Another issue was actually converting silver bars into a currency usable on administrated worlds, as Harry thought it likely that you would need some form of identification to sell it.

Reinforce had thought otherwise. There were a lot of administrated worlds out there, and keeping track of records from every single one of them would be nigh impossible, if not truly impossible. She thought that, as long as the one selling the silver wasn't on a list of criminals and was of an appropriate age, there should be no problems.

Of course, this brought up the fact that Harry was eleven again, definitely not an appropriate age, and Reinforce was the will of the book of darkness, someone with a well documented appearance. Loki, if they made him a familiar, was an option, depending on how old his human form looked.

Anyway, aside from possible ways to spend his summer, Harry thought about why Weasley and Finnegan were looking for information on Nicholas Flamel. Neither of them were especially studious, Weasley especially, and nothing about Nicholas Flamel had been mentioned in any of Harry's classes.

That meant they were doing this for their own reasons, whatever those reasons might be. Judging by the fact they were looking through books such as '_Great Wizards of the Twentieth Century_', '_Notable Magical Names of Our Time_' and '_Modern Magical Discoveries_', it could be deduced that they didn't know anything about him other than the name.

_~Oh no, don't tell me...~_ Harry mentally muttered as a reason occurred to him.

_~Don't tell me what? What have you just realised?~_ Reinforce asked curiously.

_~Those two are looking for things on Flamel. Flamel has one particular object attached to his name. Hagrid was in Diagon Alley on July thirty-first. Gringotts was almost robbed on July thirty-first, but the vault had been 'emptied earlier the same day'. The cerberus on the third floor is guarding something. Can you figure it out from that?~_ Harry asked her.

Reinforce mused over it for a moment. _~It is likely that whatever was almost stolen from Gringotts now resides in Hogwarts. You obviously think this object is whatever Flamel made.~_ She told him.

Harry mentally nodded at her. _~Exactly. I'm guessing one of those two overheard the name Flamel from somewhere, maybe the teachers or something, and now they're trying to work out what it could be.~_ Harry shook his head.

_~So what are you going to do?~_ Reinforce asked Harry.

_~Nothing.~_ Harry replied. _~Whether the stone is really at Hogwarts, on the third floor or not, or whether it's all a trap, whether there is a fake stone there or something else, it is none of my business. Although, it does explain a few things. That confusion that Quirrel caused with the troll on Halloween may have been meant as a distraction so he could make an attempt on the stone, if it really is here.~_

xxxxx

Once the holidays had started, the castle seemed to become rather deserted. It wasn't actually all that busy, seeing as there was only a fraction of the maximum number of people that Hogwarts could house there on a regular basis, but it was most definitely emptier than normal.

The four Weasley brothers in the castle accounted for half of all of the Gryffindors there. There wasn't a single Hufflepuff in the castle, nor was there a Slytherin either. In Ravenclaw, Harry was the only first year there, but there were three fourth years and two seventh years as well.

Harry had taken the fact he was alone in the common room to set up jars of bluebell flames _everywhere_. Aside from being warm, he kind of liked the flickering blue-coloured flames and thought them rather pretty. He did look for ways to change what colour the flames were, and he managed to get red flames, green flames and, weirdly, black flames as well in jars.

Seeing as there were so few people around, Reinforce was also more free in making appearances. Harry had learnt to cast a proximity alarm, a spell that was really stretching a first years magic control, that would give him a mental call if anyone approached them, and then Reinforce did join him in the common room or elsewhere sometimes in her own form, rather than being inside his body all the time.

Harry and Reinforce did have good fun during the evenings, when the other Ravenclaws had gone to bed, toasting things over the common room fire. The house elves in the kitchens had given them so many marshmallows that Harry thought he and Reinforce would explode if they ate all of them. They'd also gotten sausages, bacon, crumpets and bread as well, so they could have a proper midnight snack.

Harry had even gotten to know his other house mates that were staying with that method. One lunch time, instead of heading down to the Great Hall, Harry and the other Ravenclaws had sat together in the common room having a kind of barbecue together. They didn't become friends, but they were yet more friendly acquaintances of Harry's, which was good.

One of the older Ravenclaws, Sam Fletcher, had also gotten Harry to play a few wizarding games. Harry found that he really didn't like gobstones, it just wasn't for him, but wizard chess wasn't too bad. The wizard version of chess, Harry found, was exactly like the muggle version except for one thing, the pieces were alive.

Having living chess pieces was a bit odd at first, because rather than picking them up and moving them that way, you had to order them about, like soldiers. The pieces also gave advice, and sometimes refused to do what they were told to do which could be incredibly frustrating. Harry had almost won one game, but one picky little bishop didn't want to be taken so Harry could claim victory, the little bugger.

On Christmas eve, Harry had been outside and he finally had a breakthrough! Harry managed a three node flight spell, much to his joy. It turned out that, once he was in the air, flying was incredibly easy for Harry. He swooped, dived, looped, banked and zipped about the space with wild abandon. In accordance with her promise, Reinforce then began teaching Harry her own flight spell, the one that took the form of black wings on her back.

Harry and Reinforce went to sleep together that night, Harry happy that he'd achieved flight and Reinforce proud of her most recent master like she'd rarely been before. It was a joy for her to be able to actually be around her master in physical form, especially since the corruption of the Tome, and she was really beginning to love her time with Harry.

Before she went to sleep for the night, Reinforce let her lips touch Harry's forehead and snuggled close with her master. Things were looking good for her for a change, no dealing with corrupted programs that try and kill her master, no fighting wars that she had no interest in, nothing like that at all.

xxxxx

The next morning, Christmas day, Harry and Reinforce awoke to find a small pile of presents at the bottom of Harry's bed. Reinforce saw that her pile was more substantial than one would expect considering that only Harry knew of her existence. She did give him a smile, knowing that all of the presents would be from him, making her feel fully included in the Christmas festivities.

Harry opened the first parcel. It was wrapped in thick brown paper and scrawled across it was _To Harry, from Hagrid_. Inside was a roughly cut wooden flute. Hagrid had obviously whittled the instrument himself, a personal thing that made Harry smile. He blew it, hearing what kind of noise it made. It sounded rather like an owl, and Harry made a note to learn how to play the instrument and thank Hagrid when he next saw him.

Reinforce opened the next present. Obviously it was from Harry, she already knew that, but she didn't know what it would be. Opening the wrapping, a rather beautiful dress was revealed. It flowed smoothly across her hands, and was very soft and light. She smiled at Harry and gave him a hug, thanking him for her present.

Harry then saw a very small present and wondered what it might be. Opening it, he found a note from the Dursleys with a fifty pence piece sellotaped to it. _We received your message and enclose your Christmas present. From Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia_, the note said. Harry thought that was rather friendly of them and wondered if it was the result of the letter he'd sent them with Loki.

He'd teleported over to the park near Privet Drive and sent the message, rather than having Loki battle his way through the bad weather. The message itself said that Harry would be spending all of his holidays at Hogwarts and that he was only planning on spending the first week of summer with them before heading off for his own holiday.

The reason he was even spending a week was two fold. First, he was obviously being watched by someone, the tracking charms that Reinforce had detected and he had dispelled had proved that. He would have to at least appear to go back to his Aunt and Uncle's place.

The second reason was what they'd found out about wards during their frequent stints in the library. The force field that Reinforce had felt over Privet Drive was, now that they had local terminology, most definitely a ward of some kind. Seeing as their really wasn't a leyline or much ambient magic around Privet Drive, Harry's magic would have to charge the ward directly. A week of him being around should be enough for the ward to last a year, so a week he would stay, and no longer.

Reinforce's next present, again from Harry, was confectionery. Reinforce had a bit of a sweet tooth and she was rather fond of chocolate, the chocolate frogs the wizards had being an exception. Neither Harry or Reinforce liked trying to eat something that was jumping around in their mouths.

Harry and Reinforce each opened more and more presents. Harry received books and other things from the Hogwarts students he was on friendly terms with, as well as a Jumper and box of home-made fudge from the Weasley matriarch. Apparently, when he asked the twins later, because he was a friend of the Weasleys, Molly always made them a jumper every Christmas. Harry thought it a rather nice gesture and would make sure to send her a note of thanks with a school owl later on. Reinforce's presents covered a rather wide variety of different things from Harry, from clothing and confectionery to books and all sorts of other things. Eventually, Reinforce had opened all of her presents and Harry had two left.

One of those presents was from Reinforce, and he'd said that he would save the best for last, so he opened the other one before it. He found that the present was very lightweight, probably clothing or something like that. When he opened it, something fluid and silvery grey slithered out of it and onto the floor.

Reinforce whistled at the sight of it. "Wow." She said. "Now that has some serious magic built into it. Nothing malicious it seems, but... old? Yes, it feels very old, ancient even. There's no tracking or monitoring charms on it, and it is _extremely_ complex. I can barely tell what it is, but I think I might be able to guess. Harry, try it on."

Harry did so, not feeling any different when he was wearing it. Reinforce's eyes were wide, making Harry look down. He was incredibly surprised to see that his body was apparently no longer there. He reached out an arm, sticking it out from under the cloak, and saw his arm in mid-air.

"Whoa, now that is cool." Harry said with awe. "Hey, Rein, can your collect and use skill replicate this?" He asked, looking at the Unison Device with curiosity. Surprisingly, Reinforce shook her head.

"No, Harry, I don't think I can. Now that I'm starting to become used to Wizarding magic and how it functions, I can start to use my collect and use skill to replicate their spells, even make my own versions, but this, this is something else. I'd say that, if this invisibility was a skill and not an object, it would be a Rare Skill by itself, if not down right unique." Reinforce told him.

"Really? Who the heck would just gift me something like that?" Harry's eyes flickered around until they landed on a note that had apparently fallen out of the cloak when he'd picked it up off the floor. He read it, his eyes narrowing at one part in particular, before he took the cloak off and placed it down, frowning at it.

He handed the note to Reinforce who read it.

_Your father left this in my possession before he died._

_It is time it was returned to you._

_Use it well._

_A Very Merry Christmas to you._

"Why didn't he sign it?" Harry asked. "I've seen notes from him and recognise the handwriting, so why didn't Dumbledore sign it? And why does he say that he's had it since before James Potter died? We both know he's alive... Does Dumbledore know he's alive or does he also believe them dead?"

Reinforce shook her head, she had no answer for him either. "Whether you want to ever use that cloak or not, I suggest you at least keep a hold of it. The magic in that cloak is just so complex that it could only be a family item, passed down through the generations. I would say that thing is, at the very least, two thousand years old. It's not the same age as me, but then again, what is?"

Harry shook his head, before he went back to his gifts. There was just one present left, the one that Reinforce had made for him. "Well, I did say that I would save the best for last, so let's see what my gift from you is." He said to her, sitting down and carefully taking the wrapping paper off of the present.

At first glance, it appeared to be a book. It was a hardback book with an emblem of wings embossed on the front, like Reinforce's flight spell. The cover was black with silver designs around the edge. He opened it half-way and found the pages blanks. He flicked to the front and found, on the inside cover, some kind of runic array.

Harry traced over the runes, trying to understand what they did. He gathered that it had something to do with thoughts or memories, copying and transferring them. While the specifics eluded him, he guessed that it somehow copied memories into the pages of the book. Looking at Reinforce, he asked if that was so.

"Pretty much." She replied. "The book itself is charmed to never run out of pages, so it could become an infinite encyclopedia eventually, if enough memories are added. You know that potion I needed, the one that made photos move? The entire thing is soaked in it, imbibing the qualities into itself. As for the runic array, try something. Think of a spell you already know, a wizarding spell. Focus completely on it, then put your wand to your temple and try to pull the thought out of your head."

Harry, trusting Reinforce implicitly, did so. It took a few attempts, but Harry soon had a silver thread hanging from the tip of his wand. At Reinforce's urging, he placed the 'memory' in the runic circle on the inside cover. The 'memory' disappeared and things began to appear on the first page of the book.

He whistled as he saw the title of the spell at the top of the page as the rest of it was filled with the wand movements, incantation, description and absolutely everything that Harry knew about that spell in particular. He looked at Reinforce with wide eyes as he realised the potential in the book she'd gifted him.

"See if you can get some of the professors to contribute to the book. I think that Flitwick, and possibly Mcgonagall as well, like you enough to give you the memories. I don't know whether the headmaster would agree, but it doesn't hurt to try. After them, I will add every Belkan and Mid-Childan spell I know to the book. Think of this as your very own Tome of the Night Sky." Reinforce smiled at him. "You might not be able to cast spells from the book like someone normally could, but this is the best I could come up with."

Harry gave her quite a long hug there. "I love it, it's the best gift I've received, from my most favourite person in existence. The Tome of the Night Sky is already taken, so I think we'll have to come up with another name for it, but it is still the most amazing thing I have ever seen. Thank you, Reinforce, thank you."

Reinforce hugged Harry and thought to herself 'No. Thank you, Harry, thank you'.

As it turned out, Flitwick was more than happy to contribute to the book. The small professor was incredibly impressed with what Harry's friend had made for him, especially with such simple things. The only part-way complicated thing about the book was the runes, and even then it wasn't out of the realm of possibility for a young person to come up with it.

Mcgonagall also contributed memories to Harry's tome. Surprisingly, Dumbledore did as well, a cheery smile on his face as he transferred a load of memories all at once. There was quite a twinkle in Dumbledore's eye as he did so, making Harry check up on what the new spells were later, only to find some rather amazing things in there.

There was something called the Patronus charm, a guardian spirit spell that repelled certain dark creatures, as well as a number of rather impressive looking spells that used fire as their main component. Also within the pages, were spells used for getting fluff off of sticky lemon drops and things like that.

What Harry hadn't expected when he'd asked Flitwick and the other professors to contribute to his book, was for some of the other teachers to get interested and add some memories as well. Babbling and Vector both added things to the book, and Hagrid even contributed his vast knowledge of magical creatures.

Thankfully, a standard thing when charming a book to have unlimited pages, was to add a spell that acted like an index and contents page, so as not to make things too complicated. Still, it as an absolutely amazing thing, especially because it had been soaked in that potion that made the images and diagrams move.

Christmas for Harry passed happily, and he spent all of his time with Reinforce. The only times that Reinforce wasn't outside of Harry and in her own body was when he was retrieving memories from the professors and when everyone in the castle was gathered together for Christmas dinner. The rest of the time, including breakfast and supper, Harry spent with Reinforce and away from everyone else.


	12. Mirror

AN: Okay, I'm going to start with a question here: What do you thing that Harry's 'Tome' should be called? It seems to have been fairly well received, when it _really_ is just a magical encyclopedia at present. In this chapter, I'm starting to develop a combat style for Harry that will be unique enough to be defined as 'his'. Nanoha is the pink beams of befriending girl, Fate is the electric speedstar, Hayate is tha magical juggernaut, etc. I hope you enjoy the chapter.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 12 - Mirror

"What's that?" Harry asked curiously.

It was evening and Harry was in the restricted section of the library again, Reinforce with him. Harry was looking through a book titled '_The Darkest of Arts_'. It was proving to be quite an interesting read. Aside from describing the horrific effects of numerous dark spells and explaining how to cast them, it also included a number of methods on how to counter them.

Reinforce was reading through something. She'd owled Gringotts, acting in her capacity as his magical guardian, requesting all of the information they had on him. She thought it was a good idea to know as much as possible about Harry's place in the Wizarding World and how his actions might affect the community at large.

The goblins at Gringotts had a surprising amount of information on their clients. Looking through the history texts in the library, they found out why. Goblins were viewed as neutral with regards to wizards, never having really aligned with the 'Light', the 'Neutrals', or the 'Dark' families. In 1709, just two decades after the statue of secrecy had been implemented, the Ministry of Magic building had been the victim of an arson attack and the records had burned. The goblins had been contacted after that about keeping records away from wizards and witches, to prevent something like that ever happening again.

Reinforce was now looking over some of the information and she was worrying her lower lip in a way that Harry thought was rather cute, but it did indicate that she was concerned about something. Her red eyes looked up at Harry from the parchment, before flickering back down again.

She sighed and pushed the parchment over to him. Harry looked at it curiously, wondering what it might be, and found it was a copy of his birth certificate. He looked at Reinforce curiously, wondering why a birth certificate would worry her. The date on the certificate was right so...oh!

Glancing at the bottom of the birth certificate, Harry saw something that simply didn't make any sense. He could tell that this was what had caught Reinforce's attention, it caught his as well, but how was it possible? In a doctor's, or a healer as wizards called them, scrawl, there were four words. Status at birth: Deceased.

"So that means I was stillborn, right?" Harry asked faintly.

"Have you come across any forms of magic that could awaken the dead, Harry?" Reinforce asked carefully, not knowing if there was a book that mentioned such a thing in the rather vast Hogwarts library.

Harry simply shook his head. "There are things that can give the semblance of life, just not life itself. Harry unconsciously began to mirror Reinforce's habit of worrying her lip. It was as he did that, Reinforce was struck by the similarities between herself and Harry.

"I mean, I found a mention of Inferi, but those are more like zombies than dead people brought back to life. The portraits and paintings all around don't count, they use magic to replicate a person's attitudes, memories and all that sort of thing, they don't actually have any real life of their own. There is one thing I found..." Harry trailed off.

As he disappeared amongst the shelves, Reinforce contemplated the similarities between her and Harry. He had a silver streak in his hair that was the same colour as all of hers. One of his eyes was the exact same shade of red as hers. Now, from what she could tell, Harry was beginning to unconsciously pick up and replicate her habits.

When Harry came back, he had an old, leather-bound book in his hands. "I read this book when I was wondering about a few things in regards to familiars and the like. If I'm to be a support mage, I need some way of distracting, restricting or binding my opponent to prevent them attacking me while I prepare an attack."

Harry opened the book and began to search through it, looking for something he had previously read. "My thoughts for that are three-fold. First, I could make use of a combat-oriented familiar or knight. Second, I could use illusions to get them to 'attack' somewhere I'm not, but my illusions will need a lot of work to get up to that level. Third, I could put my transfiguration skills to the test and swarm my enemy with distracting creatures."

If Harry had been back in the common room or his dormitory, he would have stroked one of the transfigured dragons that Harry tended to keep nearby, more out of a sense of accomplishment than anything else. Harry was rather proud that Transfiguration, a subject that seemed to utterly reject all of the laws of magic he knew, was a subject that he was advancing rapidly in due to his sheer determination.

"I wondered what other sort of 'creation' spells were available, and I found this." Harry tilted the book so that the title could be read. _'Creating Un-Life from Death'_ it was called, and it didn't seem like a very pleasant book to read. Like several other books in the restricted section, it had been trapped with an alarm that cause it to scream when opened.

Harry and Reinforce had found a way around that, however. It seemed that the alarm was set off if it was opened without the librarian turning it off with some weird rod that you swiped down its spine. It hadn't been difficult for Harry to sneak into Madam Pince's office and take it out of where it was kept. As long as it was returned before they left the restricted section, no one would know about it.

"Let's see." Harry said, flipping through the book. "Here's something about forcing someone to become a ghost upon their death, but that's not what we're looking for. Inferi, but that's not it either. A section on vampires and how they can bring back the recently deceased as one of their own, not what we need either. Ah, here it is, Flesh Golems."

Harry opened the book in front of Reinforce and indicated a few paragraphs in particular. "A flesh golem is, more often than not, used as a decoy or bait. It is created from the 'flesh' of a witch or wizard, not much is really needed, nothing that can't be easily healed at least. Once the flesh has been donated, a kind of clone of a person is then created with the flesh used as a base."

Harry sat back and furrowed his brow in confusion for a moment. "A flesh golem has the 'semblance of life', but no life itself. That is because of the three part human theory, or at least that's what is believed. The three part human is the idea that we are all composed of three particular things: Mind, Body, and Soul. Some wizards say that Magic should be a separate one, but others say it is a part of the soul."

"A flesh golem has body, and it has something that could sort of be called a mind." Harry explained. "A flesh golem can either be controlled from a distance by the one it was created in the image of, or it can be given instructions to follow. It has a body, and like I said, it sort of has a mind. It has no soul, however, and it is incapable of casting magic."

"Then you couldn't be a flesh golem then, because you can most definitely use magic." Reinforce told Harry. She was rather surprised when Harry shook his head a little.

"Magic that affects the soul does exist. The killing curse, what I supposedly survived, is theorised to rip a soul out of a body. If there wasn't a soul in the body to begin with, however..." Harry trailed off.

"Then there was no 'death' to survive." Reinforce finished his sentence for him.

Harry nodded his head. "Also, the killing curse isn't supposed to leave a mark. The house that the Potters were staying in at the time kind of blew up when the killing curse was cast at me." He added. "Given that Lily Potter was supposed to be rather good at runes and remember what shape my scar used to be."

Reinforce nodded her head. "Yes, the shaping of it was a bit exact. Most would believe it to be a lightning bolt, but if it was a Sowilo rune, then..." Harry picked up her sentence and finished it for her.

"It is possible that the whole thing was a trap. According to that file, I was born dead. For some reason, I ended up in Godric's Hollow and became the 'Boy-Who-Lived'. If they used an infant body, my body, as the basis for a flesh golem, then Lily did something with runes to make some sort of trap, it's entirely possible _that_ is what happened on that Halloween night." Harry theorised.

Reinforce nodded her head. "I remember your linker core when we first met was odd, like it was recovering from something. Comparing it to the boys who sleep in your dormitory, it was... fragmented? That seems to be about as accurate a word as I can think of."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You've been looking at other people's linker cores?" He asked curiously.

Reinforce blushed a little and ducked her head. "Just my own curiosity, nothing more. It has given me a few answers though. At their most basic, what wizards call a 'magical core' is exactly the same as a linker core. The difference is that their cores are optimised for the style of magic taught here, whereas the linker cores that I'm familiar with are optimised differently. One could use the magic of the other, but the power requirements would be far greater. Your core is weird, like a hybrid of the two."

Harry nodded his head. "I suppose that makes sense. My core likely changed due to having you in my body, being young it was likely to be malleable, enough to change as it did at least. Now, weren't we thinking up theories about what happened on a certain Halloween night?"

Reinforce shook her head to get back on track and looked down at the book Harry had brought that mentioned these 'flesh golems'. "So you think that the Potters used your dead baby body to create a flesh golem, then laid a trap for Voldemort to set off. The trap worked and defeated Voldemort, but you got a soul of your own somehow, that right?"

Harry nodded his head again. "We don't know what kind of trap, if any, was set up. Combine that with how little is actual known to be fact about the killing curse and, well, there's a lot of room for interpretation. Who knows?" Harry grinned slightly. "Maybe Voldemort somehow ripped a part of his own soul off and gave it to me, thus making a flesh golem into an actual living baby."

Reinforce chuckled at that, before suddenly stopping. "Harry, do you remember how we met?" She asked in a serious voice, making Harry give her a curious look.

"Of course I do, I don't think I'll ever forget it." Harry told her, just as seriously as she was now acting.

Reinforce bit her lip. "You remember when your scar burst and began leaking all of that black gunk? Well, when that happened, your linker core began to collapse. I did all that I could to shore it up, and it worked, but I'm beginning to wonder if I accidentally did something else in the process. Your linker core began to change, becoming something I was more familiar with, becoming more like mine."

Harry blinked at her, surprised at her train of thought but able to follow it regardless. "You're wondering just how closely linked linker cores are to souls, aren't you? We know they're not the same thing, only mages have linker cores, muggles don't, and muggles still have souls of their own. Still, wizards do closely link magic to the 'power of the soul' so..." He trailed off, looking into the distance and thinking about that for a minute.

"I don't suppose it matters overly much." Reinforce sighed after a while. "You're here now, I'm here with you, and we're not likely to ever know the answers to our questions." She said, pulling Harry into a hug.

Harry sighed. "I suppose you're right. Still, if I ever do find out where Lily and James Potter disappeared to, I would like to confront them and as them why. Until that day, if it ever arrives, I will just have to be satisfied with wild guesses and crazy theories."

"True, very true." Reinforce said. "So, for now, let it all go. Instead, why don't you tell me what you're currently working on?"

Harry blinked at her, before he put the book away, and came back. "I'm trying to find a way to use my transfigured creatures when there is no material around to transfigure them from. The obvious answer was conjuration, but that is an immensely complex branch of magic."

Harry raised one hand with three fingers raised. "So far, I've been able to sufficiently explain magic in terms of three things. One, magical power." One of his fingers went down. "Two, magical control." Another finger went down. "Three, mental control." And Harry's hand became a fist as the last finger went down.

"Now, from what I can tell, Belkan and Mid-Childan magic primarily use magical power and mental control. Wizarding magic uses magical power and magical control. Let me explain what I mean by magical control: Imagine it like a dog. As a puppy, it's curious and always getting its nose in things, hence there is accidental magic. When it grows up a little, you can start teaching it tricks, which is where I'm at now. When it becomes an adult dog, it has been trained and does what it's told, a level of control I don't yet have. Magical control grows as a witch or wizard practises their magic. At the earliest, a witch or wizards magic will be under control after two years of magical schooling, so in their third year. Once I reach third year, I will be _capable_ of casting any Wizarding spell, but I'll still need to learn it." Harry explained to an attentive Reinforce.

"Belkan and Mid-Childan magic, on the other hand, does not rely on magical control that improves as someone grows. What it relies on is their mental capacity and control. Mid-Childan and Belkan magic bears a number of similarities to computer programmes. A device works to process this information, making the casting of spells far easier than it would otherwise be." Harry went on, gesturing idly with one hand.

Harry paused. "I've gotten off track, haven't I?" He blinked for a moment. "Back to what I was talking about, conjuration. Now, you know how fond I am of the 'Draconifors' spell, right? Well, I tried to look up the conjuration version of it, and found a stupidly high power requirement and overly complex wand movements and a rather long incantation. It also required a lot of magical control which I simply don't have yet. Now, because I have large mana reserves, the power requirement wasn't an issue, but everything else was, so I cheated."

Harry smirked. "Conjuring basic things, such as a handkerchief, is far less demanding. Simply conjuring 'something' is pretty easy, especially if it doesn't matter what shape it is and as long as it's not too big." Harry drew his wand and pointed it at the floor in front of him. "Petra." He incanted.

In front of Harry, a large rock appeared. It looked fairly ordinary, just like any other random stone you would see, except that it was about a foot in diameter. "Draconifors." Harry muttered, jabbing at it with his wand, turning the rock into one of the small dragons that Harry seemed to love.

Harry looked up at Reinforce and grinned. "Conjuring a rock isn't too difficult and requires little magical control, especially if I don't care about shaping it as I conjure it. If I _then_ transfigure it into a dragon, I find that it works just as well on conjured material as it does anything else."

Reinforce couldn't help letting out a small chuckle. She could just picture it now, Harry flying through the air, her black wings attached to his back, followed by a swarm of little dragons calling him 'mummy'. She didn't know where the 'mummy' part came into it, but it stuck in her head regardless.

"So you were thinking of creating a small horde of transfigured critters to overwhelm your opponent in a fight?" Reinforce asked, looking at Harry with amusement dancing in her red eyes. Harry pouted at her, able to tell that Reinforce found something amusing but not knowing what it was.

"I'm planning to be a support mage, not a front line fighter. I'll quite happily add some bombardment style magic to my repertoire, but I think something like this has a lot of possibilities to it. It's really not something that either Mid-Childan or Belkan magic users would have ever really seen. It's something new that would throw an opponent off balance. I'm looking into other things, and I'm absolutely loving runes, but I can only work so fast." Harry told her.

Reinforce ruffled Harry's hair with one hand. "I know, I know. It's a good idea, something unique that could help define your own fighting style. Now, what's this about loving runes? Is there anything in particular that you like about them?"

Harry nodded his head, his eyes gleaming slightly at the mention of runes. "I absolutely bloody love them!" He exclaimed. "With runes, you don't need magical control any more, because the runes _are_ what controls everything. I'm looking up a few warding runes, but I think I'll just steal an example rune array for what I'm planning to use it for. I'm going to put a lock on the Tome you made me, so only you or I can open it. It's truly an amazing thing, a mega magical encyclopedia, but I'd rather not have it available for just anyone to look through."

Harry dragged two pieces of parchment over to himself. "This is one I copied out of a book I bought, it's supposed to only open for those who it recognises. Before activating the ward for the first time, you need to put three drops of blood from each person onto the array and cast a simple spell so the metal 'remembers' the blood signature." Harry showed it to Reinforce who nodded as she read through the Futhark used.

"I was thinking of making the lock silver, that's supposed to be really good for enchanting. Anyway, this here is my first attempt at making something purely by myself. What do you think?" Reinforce looked at the second bit of parchment and saw a rather simple array on it. The array wasn't something that needed a genius to work out, and Reinforce understood its purpose very quickly.

"Explosions, Harry?" She asked with a hint of amusement in her voice.

Harry shrugged. "If I put the array on a pebble or something, they'll act like mini grenades, or they will if I did it right." Harry smiled. "I thought that, if I'm going to be a support mage, I'd be the one to design and create extra things for my 'troops' as it were."

Reinforce looked at the design a second time. "How big of an explosion will this make?" She asked curiously.

"Depends." Harry replied. "The more mana I pour into it when I'm making it, the bigger the bang will be. Also, various materials will work better than others. Ordinary stone is rather good, but crystal is better, and metals tend to be rather bad at this kind of thing."

"You've already experimented then?" Reinforce asked.

Harry nodded his head. "Yeah, just a bit. I tried to find out how much mana I can pour into a pebble before it can no longer take the strain. The answer is 'a fair bit more than I expected', I just kept pouring mana into it until the pebbles couldn't take it any more."

"What are these?" Reinforce asked, indicating some other designs on the parchment. Oh, she could easily guess what they were, but she'd prefer to hear it from Harry's mouth anyway.

"Elemental modifiers. Simply put, instead of the 'grenade rock' simply exploding, it could explode with fire, electricity, ice, etc. It looks to be fairly easy, just a matter of finding the appropriate runes. Heck, I could make it a sonic grenade with sound runes, or maybe a flash-bang with light runes or..." Harry continued to mutter to himself about how he could modify his simple little exploding rocks.

Reinforce looked at the watch on Harry's wrist and saw the time. "Hey, Harry. It's gotten a little late, do you think we should pack up for the night?" Harry abruptly stopped his mumblings about runes and looked down at his watch, also noticing the time.

"You're right, it is getting a little late." Harry agreed with her, before he packed up all of the books the two of them had been reading and set them back on the shelves. Reactivating the alarm charms on them, Harry returned the rod to Madam Pince's office and put everything back in its place.

It was surprising how rarely the library was searched by the teachers on patrol during the night. Reinforce with a detection spell active was aware of things around her, meaning the few times that someone _did_ search the library, they had plenty of warning.

Harry's own ability to detect magical presences was currently not very good, but it was improving by leaps and bounds. When he had been with the Dursleys, there had only been Reinforce herself, the wards on his house, and just a trace of magic coming from that crazy cat lady, Mrs Figg, for some reason.

Since coming to Hogwarts, everything around him now sang of magic. The castle itself, every wall, the floor, the armour, the torches on the wall, absolutely everything was magical. It had forced Harry's talent with detecting magic to develop, so he could tell people apart from suits of armour and ghosts.

It was as he was walking down the corridor that he felt something off to the side. He stopped, looking up and down the corridor, and noticed there was a single open door. That made Harry instantly suspicious, why was it that just _one_ door on this corridor was slightly open, the same door that the magical presence he felt was coming from.

Curiosity got the better of Harry and he nudged the door fully open, stepping into the room to take a look at whatever was in there. The temptation was just too great, and this time there wasn't a three-headed dog guarding whatever it was. Interesting fact, part of Hagrid's contribution to Harry's Tome included the fact that a cerberus really would fall asleep to music.

Anyway, the room that he had stepped into looked to be a disused classroom, like so many other empty rooms in the castle. Desks and chairs were piled haphazardly at one side of the room, an upturned waste paper basket on top of them. Propped against the opposite wall, however, was something that obviously didn't belong.

There was a mirror there. It reached to the ceiling, so that should tell you how tall it was, and it had an ornate golden frame. At the bottom, keeping the mirror standing, were two clawed feet, rather sharp looking they were too. At the top, there was an inscription engraved.

Erised stra ehru oyt ube cafru oyt on wohsi

It looked like total nonsense to Harry, but it wouldn't have been put there without purpose. Well, it was a mirror, so why not try mirror writing?

ishow no tyo urfac ebu tyo urhe arts desirE

Okay, maybe there's a bit more to it than that. The first 'word' could be separated out to 'I show', and the last word is desire, so the rest shouldn't be too difficult to figure out, should it? It took him a few moments, but he soon arrived at what he thought the message was supposed to be.

I show not your face, but your heart's desire.

And that was totally not ominous at all. Really, hearts desire? How did that work? If he really wanted a sandwich, would the mirror show him it? Saying 'heart's desire' sounded all poetic, but how did a mirror know what that was? Even if it used targeted Legilimency on anyone who looked into it, which was highly illegal, how would it know what in your mind was your heart's desire?

Deciding that he really wanted to know just what he'd see, Harry stepped up to the mirror. He pulled his hair back from his face to get a good look, leaving his scars on display at the same time. Reinforce, seeing the mirror through Harry's eyes, was also curious about what she would see.

The both of them saw the same thing. The two of them were there, stood side by side. Harry's face no longer bore the scars from the acid Dudley had poured over him, though his left eye was still red in colour. Around them were stood people that Reinforce remembered and Harry knew from her stories. Nanoha Takamachi and Fate Testarossa were their, but the other five were closer. There was Signum, Shamal, Vita, Zafira, and Hayate.

For Harry, it was his very first time actually seeing these people, knowing what they looked like. Still, his eyes were on Reinforce and the happy smile she wore at the sight of them all, but he could not miss the tears forming in her reflection's eyes.

Harry took another look at the mirror again, before deciding to call it a night. He caught four indistinct figures out of the corner of his eye, making him turn on the spot to try and see who it might be. His efforts were useless though, no matter how hard he tried, no matter what angle he looked into the mirror from, they were always just at the edge of his vision.

Turning around, Harry tore his eyes from the mirror, and made to leave. Something stopped him however, something on the edge of his perception was telling him that something wasn't right. He focused and tried to reach out to all magical presences around him.

He whirled around and looked directly into the corner. There was nothing there though, no sign of anyone or anything, not even a distortion in the air. The magical presence moved, it went from in front of Harry towards the door, but Harry cut it off, closing the door and looking directly where he could feel the thing.

"I may not be able to see you, but I most definitely know you're there." Harry rasped out. Putting one hand behind his back, he cast a single Bloody Dagger into his hand and drew his wand with his other hand. While they might not have been taught many, or any really, curses, hexes or jinxes, Harry's transfigured beasts could do some damage, and they were currently the most combat-oriented wizarding spells he knew.

Harry started transfiguring desks and chairs into little dragons, having them surround whoever or whatever was in the room with him. Whatever it was hadn't moved, and Harry would say that it seemed almost surprised at having been caught. That just added to Harry's theory of who he thought it was.

"What game are you playing, Headmaster?" Harry asked, taking a gamble on who it was in the room with him.

"I see there's no hiding from you, Harry." The headmaster said, becoming visible. "I must ask, though, however did you know I was there?" The headmaster looked towards the mirror, and Harry saw great longing and a lot of sadness in his eyes.

"Care to tell me why you were lying in wait? I was a little suspicious of it at first, the only door on the corridor that's open, an object that obviously doesn't belong, really? Everything just screams suspicious, but why is it here? Such an object is perhaps a mite too dangerous to have around children." Harry asked.

"Ah, so you have worked out what it does, have you?" Dumbledore asked. "You _have_ been noted as being a most remarkable student I suppose, so it shouldn't be all that surprising. The Mirror of Erised, a most dreadful artefact it is. Many have wasted away in front of it, wondering if what they saw is possible or simply a fantasy."

"It's being moved to a new home soon." Dumbledore told him. "I would advise you to not seek it out, but judging from your comment a moment ago, that advise may very well be redundant."

"What spell kept you hidden?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore turned to Harry with twinkling eyes. "Ah, I wondered if that might catch your interest. Yes, it is one of the few illusion spells that can be found taught at Hogwarts. The disillusionment charm is normally not a perfect invisibility spell, but it is also one of the easiest to cast. You should learn it in sixth year, or thereabouts."

Harry made a mental note to look that specific spell up later, but made no comment just then.

"Now, unless you wish to be punished, I think it best if you head on off to bed." Dumbledore told Harry. The boy gave him a long, considering look, but decided to shelve whatever he was thinking about at the time and did head off towards Ravenclaw tower.

Dumbledore looked back at the mirror. He'd charmed it so that, rather than just the person directly in front of it, he would be able to see someone's heart's desire too. He had expected Harry's desire to be a family, to be the ones who had died so he could live, but that hadn't been what he had seen.

Just who were these people and who in particular was that silver-haired and red-eyed woman whose reflection had been standing right next to him?


	13. Rest of the Holidays

AN: Right, I'm not very happy with this chapter, but this is the way it turned out. Now, Dumbledore might seem a bit bad here, but things are far more complicated than they appear at first sight, far more complicated than even what I've put might suggest they are. One thing I will say is that I am currently debating at what point I should introduce the other Potters, maybe third year or fourth is what my mind is currently thinking right now. Oh, I've also been asked if I have any plans for the Materials and Yuri. To be honest, I don't know. I was slightly considering making them into Harry's knights, but that's currently just a small nebulous idea right now. What do you guys think I should do with them? Also, can anyone give me an idea about where I can read up on them? The Nanoha wiki doesn't really tell me much and I'm not familiar enough with them at present to really have a grasp of their characters.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 13 – Rest of the Holidays

Reinforce glanced over at Harry, silently appraising him, going over things she'd been noticing more and more recently. There was one question running through her mind, one thought that just wouldn't leave her alone: Was she turning Harry into another version of herself?

She'd known him for about a year now, and in that year, Harry had most definitely changed. She'd thought nothing of it at first, improving his study habits, teaching him little bits of this and that, getting him fit and healthy, all good things really.

The silver streak in his hair and his red eye should, probably, have really been something she should have focused on. A unison wasn't supposed to do things like that, it wasn't supposed to permanently alter the one she'd unisoned with at all. That led to her taking another, closer, look at Harry.

His eyes had become slightly angular, like hers. His hair, which had originally been totally messy and unkempt, had straightened like hers had. Looking at her own reflection and his side by side in the mirror of Erised had shown her that there was a definite resemblance between the two of them, their posture, their features, Harry even seemed to have her nose now.

Then there was his personality and habits. As much as she had encouraged him to make friends with others, never forcing him and pushing him away, he still was not all that close to anyone other than herself and Loki, his raven. While she didn't really have the same opportunities Harry did, Reinforce wasn't a particularly social person either.

The way that Harry seemed to devour books, and remember them accurately, was also something they had in common. Reinforce, especially with her Absorption spell, was an existence that specialised in magical research and spell acquisition, and Harry seemed to be going the same way.

His Linker core was also something she should really have taken a closer look at earlier. She had previously focused on making sure it didn't collapse or something, which would have been a _really_ bad thing for Harry and everyone around him if it had happened.

Now, taking another look at it, Harry's Linker core, or at least the part that processed Belkan and Mid-Childan magic, bore similarities to her own core. The part of his core that processed Terran magic ,as she had taken to calling it, was still the same as Harry's core had been beforehand, it was just a part of the whole now, rather than the entire core.

"What are you reading now, Harry?" Reinforce asked as Harry wrote something down in a notebook he had at his side. Harry and Reinforce might share their knowledge via their memories, but the two of them did study different things when they were separated.

Harry looked up at Reinforce, his hair tied back behind his head into a low ponytail, leaving his visibly scarred face on display. He'd gotten irritated with it getting in the way, transparency charms or otherwise, and now kept a few bobbles in his pocket at all times. He didn't go around like that normally, he still hid his scars from everyone bar Reinforce, but when he was alone he would put his hair up.

He sighed and pushed his notebook over to Reinforce. "I've been looking into methods, other than the flesh golem idea, that would allow one to 'survive' a killing curse, like I supposedly did. I've found a rather disturbing thing here about a demon that wizards can summon. Apparently, it can devour the flesh of a human and completely imitate that which it consumed. Also, not being alive in the same sense that a human is, the killing curse will not destroy it, but there are still possible side-effects. One of those side effects is memory loss, but that's not the only one."

Reinforce flickered through the notebook, and saw that it did indeed have ideas as to how Harry could exist. The first page was about flesh golems, something Reinforce clearly remembered from their last discussion. The second page was filled with notes on rather advanced magical theories, philosophical things about what magic was, why wizards and witches had it and not muggles, how it might be forcibly added to muggles if some theories held true, and how easy or difficult it would be to make 'Random Person A' into 'Harry Potter'.

It went on, some ideas being patently ridiculous, others seeming far more feasible, and there were dozens of them. She got to the most recent page and saw the sketch Harry had made of the demon in its natural form, before it had consumed the flesh of the one it was to imitate, and read some of his notes about the connections the demon might have with other creatures, both boggarts and dementors were noted and underlined here.

Reinforce sighed and pulled Harry into a tight hug. "Remember what I am about to tell you, Harry, and _never_ forget it." She said to him, as sternly as she could. "You are Harry, whether you want to be a Potter after all of this or not, but you are my master too. So what if you're really a demon that lost its memory? So what if you're some sort of weird magical clone thing? What matters most is what you can do and what you _choose_ to do, not where you came from."

She sat back a bit, Harry cuddling up to her side. "You remember what I've told you about Fate Testarossa, yes? Do you think any less of her because she's a clone?" Harry looked up at her and shook his head emphatically. "That's what I thought." Reinforce said with a smile. "Nanoha Takamachi might be human, but she did put in the effort to befriend the red-eyed blonde girl, and didn't abandon her when the truth came out."

Harry smiled at Reinforce and quietly mumbled. "Thank you."

Reinforce gave Harry a slightly mischievous grin and said to him. "You know I said she befriended Testarossa? Well, I believe she did so with a rather... powerful magical attack. She also hit Vita with the same, and the two of them were on fairly good terms when I was to be destroyed. Shall I go and see if she has perfected her 'befriending' technique?"

Harry's eyes widened quite a bit and he shook his head frantically, he had absolutely no desire to end up someone's friend through being blasted with what equated to a giant magical laser cannon, no sir, not at all.

Reinforce ruffled Harry's hair and the two of them returned to the books they had been reading. Reinforce's reading material was heavily based in magical theory and Arithmancy, trying to form connections with what she knew of magic and this new form of it.

She was hopeful that, given enough time, she would be able to unify the separate systems. That did not mean that a Mid-Childan mage would be an accomplished wizard, or a wizard would be able to become accomplished with Ancient Belkan magic, but that she could understand equate the details and differences between them.

She'd had more success than she'd previously encountered when she dived into Arithmancy, the magic of numbers as wizards called it. That had given her the 'in' she'd needed to start dissecting their spells, bringing it all down to numbers and breaking it down into its component parts.

To be honest, what she found was strange. Mid-Childan magic was based on circles and equations for their magic often included mathematical formulas for spheres and so on. Belkan magic was based on triangles, and the number three turned up really often.

Terran magic, it seemed, was not based on a single number or system. It was more like a number of different systems had been slammed together, bits and pieces of each of them contributing to the whole. Most of their defensive and shield spells were based on the number three, their curses and so on were based on the number thirteen, charms often had a recurring seven in them, and the number one turned up ridiculously often in the 'easiest' Terran spells, those meant for first years who had just arrived at Hogwarts, 'Lumos' for example.

Once she had this down, she began to work out why each number was attributed to each 'type' of spell and how to unravel them. In the process, she gained an incredibly amount of insight onto each spell she examined, her memories helping to improve the entries in Harry's tome immensely.

While Reinforce busied herself with such books, Harry found that Transfiguration was one branch of Terran magic that he found especially intriguing. In a fight, it seemed to be one of the most versatile and powerful, but also one of the most underused collections of spells that wizards and witches had available.

Granted, free transfiguration did take a rather impressive amount of mental focus, saying nothing of conjuration at the same level, but it was something to strive for. If he ever got his hands on a device, which Harry hoped he would do, and Reinforce worked out how to cast Terran magic through one, then Harry knew exactly what sort of fighting style he would use.

The computational power a Storage Device would provide would take the strain off of Harry's mind, allowing him to cast spells he wouldn't be able to do alone. Well, at least not yet, Harry wanted to really push himself and prove that he was a capable mage in his own right, without relying on crutches.

In all of Reinforce's tales, it was not Nanoha Takamachi that Harry was most impressed with, nor Fate Testarossa, nor even Hayate Yagami. The one who Harry admired rather greatly was actually Yuuno Scrya, the archaeologist.

Aside from being able to transform into a ferret (the Mid-Childan equivalent of the animagus transformation that he'd achieved at an age unheard of amongst wizards), he didn't actually make use of a device when he cast his spells. Granted, he only really seemed to use binds, shields and barriers, and only seemed to have a single, rather simple, shooting spell in his arsenal, but he still managed to at least keep up with the other magical monstrosities, even without a device of his own!

Reinforce had told Harry that it was possible to create a golem out of magical power, and that it was considered part of the 'summoning' branch of magic, but it was also rather uncommon, rare in fact. Harry had looked up so many different forms of what he called 'combat' transfiguration it was rather ridiculous too.

Aside from his 'Draconifors' spell that Harry was really fond off, the eleven year old had also found spells for transfiguring the earth into stone warriors and the like to create a small army of soldiers. Granted, they couldn't fly like his dragons could, and they were rather slow and cumbersome, but it was most definitely something Harry found impressive.

Looking into the theory of transfiguring small things into large things, Harry had gawked at the massive difference in power requirement, especially when compared to simply casting an engorgement charm on something to make it bigger which required far less power than the alternative did.

There were advantages to this though, despite the massive power requirement. If Harry wanted to go all out with a single 'Draconifors' spell, than he would most definitely go that route, rather than simply enlarging a small version of said spell, because there was actually a difference.

When enlarged, a transfigured creation kept the same reaction times and cumbersome movements that it did when regular sized. When transfigured small to large, however, everything was improved. If Harry transfigured a rock into a dragon and enlarged it, then set that against a dragon that had been made large with a single transfiguration, the latter would win every time.

It would be more powerful, both physically and with its fire, than the enlarged one, and also more intelligent. It would be more nimble, less cumbersome, and lighter on its feet. It was only the power requirement for such a spell that prevented Harry from trying it.

If Harry, even with all of his massive reserves of mana, tried that single transfiguration, incorporating the small to large part of it, the drain would strain him immensely. It wouldn't drain all of his mana, no, he would still have masses left, but it would definitely take a big chunk to turn a pebble into a house-sized, fire-breathing, physically strong and fairly intelligent dragon.

It would be totally awesome though.

xxxxx

There wasn't really any reason to have the Hospital Wing open full time during the holidays, there was rarely any injuries during those times. It was when class was in session that Poppy Pomfrey got most of her patients, either from an exploding cauldron in Potions classes, someone getting knocked over in the hallway between lessons, someone taking a trip down some stairs because they were rummaging through their bag, or other things like that.

There were also fewer people to _get_ injured during the holidays, most of the students having gone home to their parents or carers. That meant that, with fewer students around, there were fewer chances of accidents happening, even if the holidays did mean some took liberties they usually didn't.

The Winter holidays weren't very busy for the resident Medi-witch, but there were a few potions she did stock up on just before the season began. Potions to counter the effects of them getting the sniffles, staying out in the cold too long, a few jars of bruise balm for people sliding about on ice, nothing particularly major.

She looked up when the door opened, expecting another whining child asking for something to sort out their feeling 'under the weather', or something similar. She saw that it was someone instantly recognisable, and someone that had been in her Infirmary before.

Harry Potter had _not _come to complain about sniffles and bruises before, his two visits had been about a general health check-up and the possibility of healing the scars on his face. The health check-up showed he was fairly fine, and rather physically fit for a wizard, even a muggle-born, but there was nothing that could really be done about his face, the scars were simply too old amongst other things.

"Can I help you, Mr Potter?" Pomfrey asked, casually hitting the boy with a general diagnostic charm to see if she could find anything off that. Strangely enough, there were a few oddities in the results, but it was the same as the last couple of times she'd hit him with that particular spell and he seemed completely fine so she didn't let it bother her.

"Hello, Madame Pomfrey." Harry greeted her with a nod, polite child he was, not like some of the others who demanded instant relief. For those people, Poppy tended to give them her worst tasting potions, served them right it did. Poppy tended not to dispense her more pleasant tasting potions, it only encouraged them to come back to her Hospital Wing again.

"I was wondering if you wouldn't mind teaching me some healing magic in whatever spare time you may have." Harry made his request, getting a raised eyebrow from Pomfrey. She sometimes took a few interested people in sixth and seventh year, those who wanted to be healers or the like after Hogwarts, but never a first year.

Pomfrey cast a summoning charm and a minute later five very thick and very heavy books landed on her desk. She looked at Harry and, instead of the apprehensive look she expected, she saw a glimmer of curiosity in his one visible eye. He seemed to be looking at the titles on the spine, noting how completely muggle the books looked.

"Healing isn't a simple process, it requires an in-depth knowledge of how the body works. That is fairly simple for muggles, their doctors do have biology to study, but things get very complicated when magic comes into play." Pomfrey told Harry in a stern voice. "There's a whole world of difference between casting a simple 'Episkey' and resetting broken bones, and there are things far more complicated than that. Are you prepared to put the work in?" She asked.

Harry nodded his head silently, looking Pomfrey right in the eye, his own shining with determination.

"Here then." She handed the stack of books to him, and he shuffled them about in his arms a little until they settled easily enough. "I want you to read them and memorise as much as you can. Come back when you've done that and then I'll test you on what you should have learned. If you did well enough, we'll move on. If not, well, you won't be moving on."

"Thank you, Madame Pomfrey." Harry voice was a near whisper, as usual, and the harshness it held was less noticeable because of that. He kept the books balanced in his arms as he headed out of the room and off towards Ravenclaw tower. It looked like he had enough study material to last him, oh, maybe a week, at most?

xxxxx

Dumbledore was sat in his office and contemplating recent events. While he truly did wish that James and Lily had not died, putting Harry with Petunia and her husband had been his decision, one he still stood by now. The headmaster was not evil, but he did believe that the majority out-weighed the minority, in the cases where everyone couldn't be happy.

Harry would be safe from Voldemort at Privet Drive, the blood wards he'd erected should have absolutely made sure of that. Lily's sacrifice to save her son, the ultimate expression of love, should have proven to be the perfect protection, but it apparently wasn't.

The blood wards were, for want of a better word, frayed and not as solid as he would like them to be. Oh, they were there, but they certainly weren't at the strength he had expected them to be at, not even close to that point really. He'd gone over the wards himself and found they'd been constructed properly, so the problem must lie elsewhere.

Harry himself had lived at Privet Drive since he was fifteen months old, so his magic would have been charging the wards, so that wasn't it. Yes, Harry it seemed, did not really think of Privet Drive as home, so that would weaken the wards, but not half as much as they had been weakened.

That only left one component that might have this much of an impact on the wards, Lily's sacrifice. Why wasn't that seemingly holding up properly? Lily had willingly sacrificed herself so that her son might live, she hadn't cast a spell at Voldemort and had gone to her death completely willingly, so why was there not more of an effect from the blood wards? As things stood, those wards were currently little better than a severely overpowered 'Notice-Me-Not' charm with certain conditions built into it.

There was also how completely Harry's trust in Dumbledore had been shattered. While Dumbledore doubted Harry knew about the Headmaster's modification to the mirror which let him see what Harry did, and if he did then he would be absolutely furious, he had still been caught lying in wait for him.

Dumbledore had thought that he and Harry were starting to begin the sort of relationship he needed with Harry, that of a kindly grandfather that the youngster would listen to and obey. It might not initially look to be the most moral or 'light' thing to do, but it was a necessary evil.

Voldemort needed to be put down, but the Wizarding World couldn't afford to lose the man's followers as well. There really weren't all that many witches and wizards in the world, less than a thousandth of one percent of the world's population, and they were in danger of dying out, though not many knew it.

It didn't help that Dark Lords were somewhat more common than was really healthy, and each one of them tended to wipe out a large number of wizards and witches. While Voldemort and Grindelwald were the two most recent ones, they were far from the only ones, and Britain had a bad habit of breeding the worst of the worst.

Dumbledore, though he'd never admit it to _anyone_, delayed response times of the Aurors and his Order when he knew there was a rape going on. While it was unethical and downright morally wrong, it was a way of boosting the declining magical population, it was something. While such an act was truly deplorable, Dumbledore believed it justifiable for those in the know about the current state of the world.

So Dumbledore was not the great wizard of the light he portrayed, but he still worked in the best interests of witches and wizards in general, and his plans needed Harry to be a little meek, not the big-headed braggart his father had been, and that he would most definitely have grown up if he had been raised by a wizarding family.

Now Dumbledore was trying to work something out, who was it in that mirror when Harry looked into it and why were they important to the boy? He'd noticed some of them had rather Asian features, but that didn't really narrow things down a great deal. Asian students were all over the place, Hogwarts had quite a number of them and most seemed to end up in Ravenclaw for some reason.

Dumbledore could not just request information on children he knew nothing about, that would be incredibly suspicious and raise many red flags with other people, but information was usually one of the most important things in any conflict, and the headmaster believed that he truly was still in conflict, Voldemort still being around and all.

So, without being able to request information through the ICW, which would have been even more difficult because Japan was not on the best terms with other countries, racism being relatively common and all, that meant he would have to use his own resources.

Given the unusual colouring of some of the individuals Dumbledore had seen in the mirror, that would hopefully be easier than it otherwise could have been. After all, the blonde European looking girl with red eyes had a rather distinctive appearance, as did the silver haired woman who also had red eyes.

The pink-haired woman should also stand out, the same being true of the man with blue wolf ears and tail. Where and how to start though, that was the question. While it was true that the children looked about school-aged, they were also the ones who looked more normal than the adults had. It would also be strange for Dumbledore to request information from other schools about their students, especially if he had nothing but an image to go off of.

That was all assuming they were magical, of course, which there was no guarantee that they were. Their hair colours could be explained away as dye, and their eyes could be coloured contact lenses or albinism or something. Finding non-magical people would be far harder than finding magical ones, because he would then have no leads at all to go on.

Still, the most important one to Dumbledore, because of how prominent she'd been in the mirror, was the silver haired and red eyed woman who'd had tears in her eyes. She had been stood right next to Harry, she had a hand on his shoulder even, so she was the most important one of them all.

It had not escaped Dumbledore's attention that the silver streak in Harry's hair was the exact same shade as her own, nor had it escaped his attention that Harry's left eye, which was often hidden and he'd had trouble getting a look at, was also the same colour as hers.

For a moment, Dumbledore wondered if James had been disloyal to Lily, and had a child with someone else. The possibility still existed, and a small part of the headmaster's mind said it may even be likely, what with the number of 'conquests' James Potter had made while still in school, but it was just a possibility, not a certainty.

The possibility that the woman was a fabrication of Harry's mind also existed. The silver hair, the red eyes, both were the same as what Dumbledore and Snape had seen in Harry's mind before they were forcefully thrown out. That raised a question in Dumbledore's mind, about whether Harry was of sound mind or not. It took a particular sort of person to have an imaginary person as their greatest desire.

Dumbledore fingered the wand in his pocket, thinking certain things through. A few charms cast on Harry would probably give him a few answers to his questions, but should he use them? He, of course, ran the risk of Harry realising what was going on and his trust in him falling even further, if that was at all possible, and he had no desire to drive the boy off.

A paternity and maternity charm would show whether James had cheated on Lily, or even if Lily had cheated on James, and that would put that to rest. Unfortunately, due to Harry's burgeoning Occlumency skills, using Legilimency on the boy to find out whether he was of sound mind or not was out of the question.

Dumbledore glanced at Fawkes and remembered the odd occurrence from when Harry had been in his office before, the magic circle that had appeared beneath the phoenix. Dumbledore had not been able to find _anything_ at all about that, which frustrated him quite a bit.

On the other hand, the fact that a 'light' creature such as a phoenix seemed to like Harry was a good sign, something that put Dumbledore's mind at rest a little. The headmaster was well aware of the possibility of young Harry being a horcrux, and what would be necessary if he was. Thankfully, if he was a horcrux, there didn't seem to be any sign of Harry developing a personality in line with Voldemort's.

Dumbledore's eyes flickered down to the medical records of Harry Potter that sat on the desk in front of him. It was probably a very good thing that Filius encouraged his students to go to Poppy for check-ups, it allowed the muggle-born and raised students to receive booster potions to protect them from magical illnesses, potions that the magically raised students got at a younger age.

The record in front of Dumbledore had... oddities in it though. Diagnostic charms could tell someone a lot, especially so if the caster was greatly skilled and knowledgeable about some of the less common ones that could be cast, and Poppy Pomfrey was very good at her job.

The first thing that really drew attention was the fact that Harry Potter didn't have a magical core in his body, no, he had two instead. One of them was almost completely incomprehensible to regular diagnostic charms, and the other was little better, resembling the first quite a bit, but also having a few signs that indicated it was similar to a regular magical core.

That the incomprehensible magical core seemed to have a... feminine bent to it, if magic could be said to have a gender, raised Dumbledore's eyebrows a little, and had him developing another theory about how Harry had survived the killing curse.

It was possible that Lily had done something that resulted in her magical core getting lodged in Harry, and that somehow acted as a catalyst to Harry surviving. That still wouldn't explain why the magical core was so different from a normal one, but maybe that had been the result of a ritual or something that she'd done to protect Harry.

Harry's medical record did also note how surprisingly physically fit the boy was. Pure bloods tended to be rather unfit, since they relied heavily on magic to accomplish the most mundane of tasks, while the muggle-borns tended to be more physically fit, having had to go to school and take PE, but Harry was more fit than was normal, as if he had exercised regularly for some time.

The biggest and most important part of the record, as far as Dumbledore was concerned, was how stupidly massive the boy's reserves of magic were. Dumbledore himself had large reserves of magic, and Tom Riddle had had large reserves of magic as well, slightly larger than Dumbledore's own, but Harry's made their reserves combined look like a small puddle next the ocean.

How did one get such massive reserves of mana? Did it have something to do with how he'd survived the killing curse? Did it have something to do with the strangeness in his magical core? Did his physical fitness have something to do with it? Truly, the wizarding world was more concerned with what they could do with magic more than what magic truly was, which was rather a shame really.

Dumbledore looked out of the window, towards where he knew Harry disappeared to, even if he didn't know what the boy did there. He had contemplated following him while under a disillusionment charm before, but Harry's ability to seemingly detect him when he was under it put a stop to that idea.

He would leave Harry alone for now, the winter holidays would be over soon enough. Right now, what was weighing most heavily on his mind was thinking up a way to encourage Harry to explore the third floor corridor. The traps there weren't massively difficult, but they should be a ways beyond a single first year, and he really needed to test Harry.

It was for the greater good!


	14. Two Professors

AN: Okay, here's another chapter. I know that I have a habit of making characters too powerful too fast, but I'm trying to control that. As 'great' as Harry will seem, he's still just an eleven year old and he would fail pretty badly in a fight against an adult wizard. What he has going for him is endurance (massive reserves of mana), physical agility (due to exercise) and weird and innovative ideas. He'd still lose though, because he simply does not have the experience or spell repertoire of older people. He also doesn't have the 'freaking huge beams of friendship' that nanoha abuses the heck out of. So, in conclusion, he's good, very good, for someone his age, but he's no super wizard.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 14 – Two Professors

It was January and the Christmas holidays were over. Harry was, as he often seemed to be, in the Library once more. Strangely enough, he was looking at Muggle Studies books in addition to magical theory right then. What he was trying to do was work out why magic interfered with muggle technology, because if that obstacle could be overcome then there were so many new things that could be done, so many new possibilities that became available.

That was what Harry would tell anyone who asked of course, but his real reason was a little different. Mid-Childan and Belkan devices were technology, rather advanced technology at that, and they were actually used in conjunction with magic, so there _must_ be a way for the two to work together rather than against each other.

Reinforce couldn't answer that question because she didn't know herself, Terran magic seemed to be inherently different to the magic she knew. Before Harry, she'd never come across accidental magic before, it was just something that Mid-Childan Mages and Belkan Knights simply didn't do.

Their current theory was that the Linker core of Terran wizards gave off some kind of energy that was conducted by materials that also conducted electricity and the two interfered with each other, causing the problems with technology that wizards had encountered during every attempt they had made to integrate the two.

"That seems quite interesting, and rather advanced for a first year." A voice behind Harry said, making the boy jump a mile in the air. He'd been so into what he'd been doing that he hadn't paid any attention to detecting magical presences around him, allowing this person to sneak up on him.

He turned around and saw, to his surprise, that it was a professor that had sneaked up on him. His brow furrowed for a moment as he tried to recall who she was. She wasn't one of the teachers of a core class, but one of the electives he couldn't take until third year.

Ah, that was it, she was the Arithmancy professor, Septima Vector. Harry only knew that because he'd been looking into the subject due to Ollivander saying it would be something he'd probably be good at. Finding out that Arithmancy was essentially magical maths _had_ made it a subject that Harry truly excelled at, having been applying himself to maths at Reinforce's suggestion.

"Hello, Professor Vector. Is there something I can help you with?" Harry asked in a low voice, the rasping and harshness in his voice being less noticeable if he spoke like that. As he asked, he looked the woman up and down, examining her and wondering why she was talking to him.

Vector, of course, noticed Harry's wandering eyes. It wasn't like the examinations of some of the other students though, not one driven by hormones. Septima Vector knew she was an attractive woman, just like Bathsheda Babbling, Charity Burbage and Aurora Sinistra. She knew that some of the third year and up boys fantasised about her and her colleagues, not that she really minded, but it was sometimes a little irritating.

Harry Potter's examination of her though was different. Rather than admiring her body, he seemed to be looking at her body language. She noticed how his eyes darted to her wrists, waist and shins, the places one would most often conceal a weapon of some kind. No, Harry's look wasn't lust based, but more evaluating.

"Maybe, maybe not." Vector shrugged her shoulders. "It's been mentioned in a staff meeting a while back that you seemed to have an interest in my subject, Beth's as well, and that made us curious. Usually, students don't actually really start looking into the electives until the end of second year at least."

Harry bowed his head in acknowledgement. "I find it interesting that spells can be broken down into nothing more than numbers. That magic, as mystical as it sounds, could be said to be just another science that deals with an energy that manifests itself in certain members of the human race, and is present in other beings also."

Harry's eyes flickered over to his tome, the one Reinforce had made for him for Christmas. It was currently open at a page dealing with the 'Lumos' charm. That particular spell was the most basic spell that Harry had been able to find, the 'magic code', as it were, being essentially binary. Because the wand was either lit up or not, there were two 'states' for the spell to be in, the brightness only being affected by the amount of magic that was poured into it.

Vector's eyes followed Harry's across to his tome. That little book had became kind of famous amongst the staff, especially since Harry had gotten a number of them to contribute to it. Harry had merely said it was a gift from someone close to him, and there was a bit of speculation on who had given it to him and how it had been made.

Septima almost let out a low whistle at the amount of detail was on the page about a spell as simple as a 'Lumos' charm. Since that spell was so simple that anyone could cast it, even without any practise, there was usually less than a paragraph on it in a regular book, but that wasn't the case here.

The incantation and effect were noted down in Harry's book, and since there was no wand movements involved there was no need for a diagram showing that. There was a spell matrix on the page, but it was extremely simple, and there was a graph depicting how an increase in power had an effect on the brightness of the light. The graph was a curve that levelled off to a flat line when increasing the mana to the spell did nothing further.

Beneath that though, was what Septima could only describe as computer code. Taking a closer look at it, she would say that, at a guess, the code was the process that the human mind underwent to cast the spell. Simply put, if you could insert that code into a computer and somehow give it access to magic, the spell would be cast 'artificially' as it were.

"Now I'm really interested." Septima muttered, almost licking her lips hungrily. Most students in her class didn't delve that far into the theory, normally only wanting to use her lessons to go into spell-crafting or something equally glamorous. The only time she saw as much in-depth theory as that was when she gave them such an assignment.

It wasn't that such work was difficult, because it wasn't. It was just that most couldn't be bothered putting the time in to work something like that out. That aspect of Arithmancy was what most would call 'boring, but necessary', and was abandoned as soon as they could move on to more 'interesting' parts of Arithmancy.

Vector indicated the code at the bottom of the page and asked. "How many spells have you broken down into that form?" She looked at Harry as his one visible eye blinked and then he picked up his tome, rapidly flicking through it and keeping a mental count of the spells that had been broken down into that form.

"Thirty six." Harry replied. "All of the spells in the first six chapters of _'The Standard Book of Spells Grade 1'_ as well as a few others are in here." He told her. "The other spells are from _'A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration'_ mostly."

"When is your next free period?" Vector asked him.

Harry blinked and took out his time table. "I am free now, then lunch is after this and I have a single free after that. After that free period I have Transfiguration and then History of Magic." He told her. "Why?" He asked.

Septima thought about her own time table and Bathsheda's. "Myself and Professor Babbling are also free at those times, and we are rather curious about you and your... proficiency in our subjects. If you have no objections, would you care to join us at lunch so we could discuss a few things?"

Vector was surprised when Harry's one visible eye went immediately calculative. She saw him mulling over the thought in his mind, considering, before he replied. "I would like that, thank you." He eventually replied. "Where would this meeting take place?"

"Do you know where the Ancient Runes classroom is?" She asked, getting a nod from Harry. "We'll eat in there then. Beth's room also has large tables that we can spread things out over if it becomes necessary." Another nod from Harry indicated his understanding, and Vector turned and left Harry wondering what would happen during that meeting at lunch.

xxxxx

Harry gently pushed open the door to the Ancient Runes classroom at lunchtime, taking in what the room and its occupants looked like.

The room itself was fairly large, despite it not having a great many people that took the subject. Since Ancient Runes and Arithmancy were supposed to be the two most difficult subjects to take when electives came around, a lot of people avoided them because of their reputation.

The tables were rather large and square, four chairs being around each one, a good set up for group work. The walls had some interesting displays on them, some of them seemed to be from the students while others were famous examples of Runes used in practical settings.

There was the professor's desk at the far side of the room with a large blackboard on the wall behind it, but the two professors he'd come to see weren't there. The two of them were sat at one of the large tables, their lunches out in front of them while they ate.

Now that he'd taken a look at the room, Harry examined the two professors. He'd already seen Vector up close when she'd approached him in the library. She had a reputation of being rather stern or strict, but Harry had seen the spark of interest in her eyes when she'd caught sight of his break-downs of spells in his tome.

It honestly hadn't been that difficult to do, but the searching for the right information had been a nightmare. There were spells that could be used to break down a cast spell into parts, but each of these needed to be broken down again to get what Harry needed.

The maths involved wasn't difficult, but it was sometimes confusing and time consuming. It was at times like that when he really appreciated Reinforce's assistance, she helped to smooth the whole thing over rather well. He was proud of himself for converting the spell matrices into computer code though, that had been all his own work.

The computer code hadn't been that difficult, but the slightest error would cause the whole thing to go wrong. He'd looked over every IF and ELSE statement in his code, making sure it was right, going over it again and again, just to make sure. His success had made him a little giddy, but he'd controlled it.

Professor Vector aside, there was still Professor Babbling to consider. He didn't really know much about her, but what little Harry had been able to find out said that she was a good teacher and rather enthusiastic about her subject. That would have to do for now, it was all he had.

Harry had brought a lunch with him from the kitchens to this meeting, one of the older Ravenclaws he'd talked with over the Christmas break had told him that the house elves within were always eager to please, and Harry had been rather surprised by the house elves there, he'd had to stop them from providing him with a five course meal. How eager they were to serve was, in a sense, a little off-putting, but Harry tried to ignore it.

Both Babbling and Vector looked up when the door opened and beckoned Harry in. He took a seat at the same table they were at and took out his lunch and began to eat. At first, not much was said as all three of them ate, but the two professors soon picked up their conversation again and Harry listened in.

"What about you, what do you think?" Babbling asked Harry suddenly, and was he ever so glad that he'd been listening to what they had been talking about then. If not, he doubted that he would have a clue what he'd been asked, but, as it was, he knew they'd been talking about rituals of all things, specifically whether shapes other than circles could be used in them for runes.

"I think that it depends completely on the ritual and the base number being used." Harry replied. "Maybe triangles could be used in wards and things, three is supposed to be a magically important number, isn't it? A defensive one, if I remember right." Harry mused.

Vector's eyes nearly sparkled at that as the idea took root in her mind. "True, true, but wizards tend to be so stuck in their traditions that it's ridiculous. I remember when I was a student and I asked a similar question. The professor simply said that 'magical circles have been circles since before Merlin's time! You've never heard of a magic square now, have you, silly girl!' and that was that."

Babbling nodded her head in agreement. "It doesn't help matters that there are spells that can mark out perfect circles, it makes them easier and we all know how 'easy' is always the answer." Seeing Harry's curious look, she elaborated. "I'm a half-blood and Septima is a muggle-born. We both find it ridiculous how everyone uses spells for the most simple of tasks. It's no wonder everyone is so unfit if they believe the easiest way to get a book off a shelf is to summon it, rather than simply stand up, walk over, and grab it."

Harry nodded his head in agreement. While he would actually summon a book if it was out of reach or he was busy doing something, he wouldn't do it simply because he could. Doing something like that was similar to teleporting down stairs instead of walking, simply because the option was available.

"So," Babbling said with a large grin on her face. "Septima tells me that you've been looking rather deeply into spell theory and it has caught her interest. Would you mind sharing what you have?" She asked, and her expression reminded Harry of the Cheshire cat from Lewis Carroll's story.

Harry had prepared for this and, instead of his tome, which he still had to name, he had copied everything out onto parchment. An enlarging spell meant that he had something big enough to draw the more complex diagrams on it and have everything be as accurate as he could make it.

Harry was wondering what they would make of a Mid-Childan magic circle, and the spell calculations that went with it. He'd chosen something relatively innocent, a Round Shield, and copied it out, under the direction of Reinforce of course, so he got everything right.

He laid out all of his little bits of code on the table in front of him, before bringing out the rolled up bit of parchment that had the Round Shield on, and let the two professors take a look at all of that, while he silently communicated with Reinforce about a few things they were considering.

_~What do you think?~_ Harry asked. _~What will they make of the Round Shield?~_

_~Well,~_ Reinforce replied. _~It is far more complex than that Protego shield we found, so I don't really know. I'm still trying to work out why Terran Linker cores seem to mess with technology so much. Because of how your core is different, I don't think you really need to worry about affecting technology too much, or maybe even at all, but it's still a puzzle I'd like to solve.~_

A low whistle from Babbling drew Harry's attention back to the two professors in front of him. The two of them had looked over the parchment and been quite impressed with what he'd done with the spells there, but that paled in comparison to the Round Shield he'd copied out.

"Mr Potter, did you do this?" Babbling asked, indicating the parchment with one hand.

He shook his head. "No, this particular piece is something that I copied over from something a friend sent me. I thought you might want to have a look at it, so I brought it along." He told them, shrugging his shoulders. "I think I might be able to cast it, but it would be rather weak." Harry told them, and proceeded to do just that.

Holding his wand in his hand, so it wouldn't look like he was doing wandless magic, Harry cast a Round Shield in front of himself. He struggled with it a little, a Panzerschild coming much easier to him than this did, but he still managed to cast it.

Vector reached out with one hand and touched the shield, finding it solid against her hand. She then rapped her knuckles against it, to find that the shield held. "Do you mind if we cast a few spells against it, to test this shield?" She asked, and Harry nodded in her reply, granting his permission.

Both Vector and Babbling cast spells against the Round Shield, and Harry felt the impacts. They started off with the most mild spells they could think of, slowly building up to more powerful spells. Harry couldn't hold the shield forever though, and eventually dropped it. Still, the shield had managed to deflect some rather decently powerful curses while it had been up.

"Interesting." Vector muttered under her breath, looking back at the parchment with the Round Shield described on it. "Very interesting. You definitely have a mind for numbers if you're capable of casting something like this. Let's see if I can cast it too." She said, before attempting just that.

She had a few failures, but on her fourth attempt she did manage to sort of cast the spell. Unfortunately for her, Mid-Childan spells required far more power than Terran ones, and she only managed to hold a very weak form of the Round Shield for a handful of seconds before it sapped at her reserves and she was forced to drop the spell.

"Ugh." She mumbled, rubbing at her chest. For some reason, casting that spell had strained her magical core a little, as if it wasn't meant for casting that kind of spell. Looking at the parchment that described it, she could see that the shield wasn't really created with the same principles of magic theory she was familiar with, but she'd still gotten it to work, if just barely.

Reinforce was also rather interested in what had just happened. From what she could tell, Professor Vector had a regular Terran core, but she had just cast a Mid-Childan spell. Granted, it had strained her core a fair bit, what with it not being suited to casting that type of magic, but she'd still managed it.

Those results coincided with what Reinforce had theorised. Her own core was in-line with Belkan magic, but was also capable of Mid-Childan spells, yet she had still been able to cast Terran magic with Harry's wand. It had taken a lot more out of her than it had Harry, but it had still been possible.

The most major difference between herself and Vector, that Reinforce could see, was how much mana they had to put behind the spell. Terran wizards, it seemed, did not have massive reserves of mana, but nor did their spells require much either. Mid-Childan mages and Belkan knights had much larger reserves of magic, but their spells were comparatively more demanding in terms of mana too.

It was rather interesting, and Harry's interactions with these two professors may help discover a few things about Harry's hybrid core and what possibilities there might be. It was a shame that Harry wouldn't be able to interact with the two of them in classes until third year, that being when electives began, but perhaps if they had more little sessions like this...

xxxxx

Quite some time later, after Harry had spent his free period discussing things with Babbling and Vector, who said he should call them by their first names if they were going to continue those discussions, Harry left and headed to his next lesson, Transfiguration.

Harry had immensely enjoyed his time spent with the two women, and it had been most helpful in learning more about what he could do. Vector had been able to provide him with some meditation techniques that would help his Occlumency, ones that would enhance his ability to process information better than the stuff he'd been learning.

The book she'd gotten the exercises from had been written by an American wizard that was a muggle-born and he'd had an interesting approach to the subject. Rather than emptying your mind, leaving it blank so someone could not read it, he'd taken his influence from how computers encrypted data.

The first part of this different Occlumency was to try to get your mind to focus on multiple things at once, rather than nothingness. This mental multi-tasking was supposed to enable you to have several conscious levels of thought at once, like a computer with multiple core processors, and enable you to do multiple tasks at once.

Reinforce had understood what was being discussed better than Harry, so she had explained it in different terms. She said that, normally, a human brain had two levels of thought, conscious and subconscious. The conscious mind was what he was most familiar with, what he used when he contemplated one thing or another. The subconscious was what controlled the muscles in his gut, what controlled his breathing, his blinking and things like that.

Now, computers had multiple methods of performing tasks simultaneously. One way to achieve this was to assign a small amount of processor time to every task in a second, rapidly switching between tasks at a speed that made it _look_ like everything was happening at once, even if it really wasn't.

The other of the two most common methods was to have a separate core for separate tasks. This essentially meant that the tasks actually were being processed at the same time, but it did require additional hardware to do so. It was things like this that made Harry understand things better.

What they were proposing to do, was make Harry's mind similar to a computer, and that would allow him to process information faster, and that would directly affect his ability to cast Mid-Childan and Belkan spells, which were heavily based in mathematics.

Harry was all for it. It had already been shown that Harry had a mind for numbers, so increasing his abilities in regards to that could only improve his spell work even more. Still, a device would always be better than a human mind for these things, and Harry still wanted to get a hold of a Storage Device which would boost his spell-casting abilities immensely.

xxxxx

Harry's second term at Hogwarts was going better than his first one had. He might only be part-way through it, but now that he had a better grasp of Terran magic, things were coming more and more easily to him. In class, what with the effort he put into things beforehand, he was always the first to successfully cast a spell, even if Transfiguration was still something he had to put extra effort into.

The study group that included all of the houses was going well, and Harry used the time he spent there to help those who asked him for it. It seemed that the saying was right, teaching people did help you to learn something easier than simply being a student.

At Septima and Beth's suggestions, Harry also began to look into Ritual magic, and he absolutely loved it. What with the geometric magical circles, pentagrams and so on, there were some parts of it that were very similar to Belkan and Mid-Childan magic. The major difference here being that mages and knights tended to project the circles and so on using their magic, whereas wizards physically drew them out.

Harry had also finished the books that Pomfrey had had him read, and he had memorised them to the best of his ability. She'd quizzed him when he came back, asking how many bones were in the human body, how many of them were not attached to the skeleton, how many muscles there were, and so many more questions, and he answered them to her satisfaction.

Now Harry spent an hour or so each day of the week in the Hospital Wing, being taught things by Pomfrey about healing magic. She did contribute her extensive knowledge to his tome, but she said she didn't want him to rely on that and actually learn the spells, potions and techniques that all healers had to learn.

They started off with simple things, like 'Episkey', that healed minor cuts and bruises and the like. Superficial injuries were the easiest to heal, and also required the least finesse. Physical injuries were also relatively easy to sort out, unless they were caused by magic that was.

A broken leg that had been caused by a fall or something could be fixed really easily, with one simple spell actually, but one caused by a hex or something was a completely different story. It could still be treated, but the magic in the wound would first have to be siphoned off and removed before any healing could really begin.

There were cases of spells not being able to be fully removed from an injury too, which led to Harry having to learn spells to counter the lingering magic, so that healing could begin. After that, there the different ways a spell could cause the same injury.

Knowing the effect of a spell was all well and good, but knowing _how_ the spell had caused the effect was even more important. Imagine the effect of a spell was to stop someone breathing, there could be a number of ways that had been achieved. One way could be a physical blockage or a magical barrier in the trachea, another way could be by paralysing the diaphragm, another way could be by preventing the lungs from expanding, or even contracting. Each one would require a different counter and it was truly immense work to remember them all.

It was no wonder that Pomfrey only usually taught sixth and seventh years, and only those who had proved themselves capable and responsible enough to handle the workload. Harry's own hand-written notes that he'd compiled while studying under her had rapidly become his most comprehensive collection, more so even than Transfiguration which had them noting down physical properties and the biology of creatures they were supposed to be transfiguring.

Reinforce added to Harry's knowledge of Healing magic with what she knew as well. Physical Heal was a fairly basic healing spell, that did exactly what you might have guessed, healing physical injuries. She also explained how Linker cores could be damaged, something that didn't often happen amongst wizards, and how the damage could be repaired.

xxxxx

Two weeks before the Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff Quidditch match, Harry was just leaving the library when he ran across Neville Longbottom who was leaning against the wall. He raised an eyebrow when said boy began to bunny-hop down the corridor, his legs seemingly stuck together.

Recognising it as the leg-locker curse, he cast the counter at the Gryffindor, who promptly collapsed to the floor. Harry went over and helped him to his feet, waving off the boy's gratitude and asking him what was going on and who had cast the spell at him.

"It was Malfoy. I met him just now, outside the library, and he said that he'd been looking for someone to practise that spell on." Neville told him, making Harry rub at his face and sigh.

Malfoy had been a thorn in Harry's side as well, and the damned bully didn't seem to be limiting himself to a single target. Harry had let Malfoy's comments slide off him, ignoring what the self-entitled boy said to him. Reinforce had encouraged him to 'befriend' the boy Nanoha style, and she hadn't totally sounded as if she was joking when she suggested it.

Harry hated bullies, he really did. He remembered what things had been like before the accident, before the Dursleys had people keeping a closer eye on them than previously, and how bad things had been. That sort of thing made his blood boil, and now he was seriously considering how he could get back at the boy for what he'd done to Neville, a boy who had absolutely no self-confidence.

"Hey, Neville." Harry said. "Do you want to help me prank Malfoy?"

xxxxx

Neville had taken a little convincing to agree with Harry. Harry thought that a bit of revenge might help Neville improve his self-confidence, knocking the blonde down a peg after he'd attacked Neville and gotten away with it. The only thing that remained was to think up what the prank should be.

Obviously, it couldn't be anything too complicated, they were only first years after all, but Harry was looking into odd magic, what with his regular 'infiltration' of the restricted section of the library, and he thought he might have just the right thing.

It wouldn't be anything permanent, nor would it be anything physically painful, but it would be humiliating. The best pranks always were, especially when used against someone who deserved it. Harry had sworn he would never be mean and target just anyone, lest he become a bully himself, but revenge was a whole different matter.

A simple ritual was what Harry had come up with in the end. Telepathically, he'd asked the hat whether it knew the passwords to the different dormitories, and it had, so now they had access to Draco when he would be asleep, when they would perform the ritual.

With the invisibility cloak, which Harry was still loath to use, and the addition of Harry casting disillusionment charms just in case, they managed to sneak down to the Slytherin common room at night, whisper the password to get in, and then head off the first year boys dormitory.

First thing first, Harry had checked that they were all in fact asleep before he began to set up the prank. Once that had been confirmed, he had then checked for any wards or anything that might be on their beds or person. Surprisingly, they all had alarm charms or the like on them, cautious Slytherins that they were.

The simplest alarm charm seemed to be that of a tripwire, while the more complex ones were similar to proximity alarms. Malfoy's bed was, thankfully, one only guarded by the former rather than the latter. With Reinforce and himself both focusing on the tripwire, Harry managed to lay out some string underneath Malfoy's bed in the form of a pentacle.

Once that was done, he used chalk to write out some runes that he'd memorised in the appropriate places and lit candles at each point of the pentacle. Once that had been done, he'd placed out a small stone with a rune etched into it around the edges of the circle and channelled his mana into the circle.

Quietly, but clearly, Harry muttered out the incantation that he'd memorised and there was a muted flash of light. He paused then, seeing if anyone had been woken up by that. Aside from a few groans and murmurs, however, everyone remained asleep, so Harry continued what he was doing.

Harry held out a hand and Neville placed a bowl in it. Inside that bowl, Neville had ground up some herbs that would complete the ritual. Pouring the herbs into a glass of water, Harry slowly, ever so slowly, trickled the mixture down Malfoy's throat.

Once that was done, Harry muttered off another incantation to end the ritual and cleared up any sign that they had been there. He and Neville left the Slytherin dormitories and common room speedily, but without haste, and soon ended up in front of the portrait of the fat lady.

At that point, Harry removed the disillusionment charm from both of them and saw the grin on Neville's face. The boy looked like he had his heart in his throat, but it seemed to have done him some good to get a little revenge on someone who had been tormenting him since September.

Harry said goodbye, and headed off to Ravenclaw tower and his own dormitory and bed, to sleep. Once he got there, Harry examined the other beds in there, and found that two of them also had alarm charms on their beds. Deciding that having something like that might actually be a good idea, Harry made a mental note to research such things in the morning.

xxxxx

The next day, Malfoy was in for something of a surprise. It was strange, but overnight, he seemed to have become as clumsy as Neville Longbottom was. Actually, he was even worse. He tripped over nothing, fell over almost constantly, and made something of a fool of himself.

Even his spells seemed to back fire. In charms, instead of making a grapefruit tap dance, he somehow managed turn his hair red and purple, give himself clown make-up and cause the grapefruit to slap him in the face. Everyone laughing at him made his face burn in embarrassment, and he didn't even try and torment anyone for the rest of the day.

He complained to Professor Snape about how someone must have cursed him, but he didn't find anything. He went to the Hospital Wing, where Pomfrey cast a slew of diagnostic charms at him, and she did find out what had happened. She was also aware that, even if that type of magic didn't leave a distinctive magical signature behind, only one student in the school had really done any research into ritual magic, and she didn't particularly want to out him for it.

Thankfully, the effect was not permanent, and she told Malfoy that maybe he was just being a bit clumsy that day. She could tell that the ritual would wear off in a day or so, so there was no harm in leaving it as it was. The fact that she'd had students in her Infirmary that had suffered from him hexing them in the corridors and he had gotten away unpunished had nothing to do with it, of course, nothing at all.

Neville did cheer up whenever he saw Malfoy that day, and he did share a secret smile with Harry Potter at a few points that confused some people. While Harry Potter was fairly friendly, there had never really been any indication that he had friends, like how he and Longbottom were acting.

They shrugged it off. It wasn't like it was really important to any of them, and far less important than the upcoming Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff! Yes, who Harry Potter made friends with really wasn't important to them at all, but it did catch the eye of a few professors, the headmaster amongst them.


	15. Dragon

AN: Well, here's chapter fifteen. This chapter is relatively short, but it's necessary for what's going to happen next. Don't worry, a _big_ change to canon is coming very soon, let's see if anyone can guess what it is. I know Harry seems to be following the plot of Philosopher's Stone, _despite_ differences, but that won't be the case for much longer, trust me. Anyway, I hope to put a new spin on a few things, so feedback is much appreciated if you wouldn't mind. I _would_ like more than simply 'Good Chapter', or something like that though, for those that do review or post on the forum.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 15 - Dragon

The Gryffindor versus Hufflepuff Quidditch match didn't turn out to be anything special. Gryffindor's chasers were better, but Hufflepuff had a better seeker than they did. Cedric Diggory was someone that even Harry had heard about, despite said boy being two years older than him and in a different house.

To be honest, Harry didn't particularly like Cedric Diggory, he was a pretty boy of the worst sort. He was popular, and girls were all over him, and he basked in the attention. Diggory seemed to have his eye on one girl in Harry's house, Cho Chang in the year above Harry.

Harry had overheard, quite by accident, Marietta Edgecombe, Cho Chang's friend, encouraging said girl to date him. Chang seemed a little reluctant, she was rather shy and didn't know whether she could deal with all of the popularity that surrounded Cedric Diggory.

She was cute though, anyone could see that, and she was likely to be a real beauty when she got older. Maybe it was her looks that had attracted Diggory to her? Meh, whatever it was, it was none of Harry's business. That didn't mean he liked either Cedric Diggory for his playboy ways, or Edgecombe for her pressuring Chang to date Diggory.

Playboys and other things aside, Harry found he was quite comfortable with things at present. The professors had started handing out small tests at random, making sure the students didn't forget things they'd been taught, and Harry had scored one hundred and forty two percent on a charms assignment!

How Harry had managed to get over full marks was never adequately explained to him, but he was told that it was because he'd gone above and beyond what he had been expected to put down for his answers. His practical results were also good, and Harry had fun showing off his skills in Transfiguration.

While other people were turning mice into snuff-boxes or beetles into buttons, Harry had progressed to turning larger things into animate objects. Having asked about the 'Draconifors' spell and whether there were other versions of it that would allow him to turn things into other magical creatures, Mcgonagall had loaned Harry a book of just such spells.

He was having difficulty with some of the larger creatures though, his Pegasi needed improving and so did his gryphons, the less said about his attempts at chimeras the better. He seemed to have most success with reptiles, things like snakes, dragons, lizards and so on.

Harry was determined to be able to transfigure a winged horse of some kind though, whether that was an Abraxan, a Pegasus, a Thestral or something else didn't matter. Reinforce was amused by Harry's attempts, saying that he was trying to be a 'flying knight in shining armour' or something like that, but Harry ignored her gentle teasing, sometimes replying by asking whether she was the damsel in distress.

xxxxx

Of course, with the professors beginning to pile on the review work, Hermione also began to try and write up study time tables for everyone in their group. Harry put a stop to this, saying that she could put something up if she really wanted to, but not to try and force other people to follow her schedules.

She did manage to convince him to lead some review work though, which he only agreed to when she managed to convince some of the others to do the same. Harry wound up as the main person directing it though, despite trying to avoid doing so, and kept sending glares in Hermione's direction.

Pomfrey said that she would also have an exam of sorts for Harry to do as well. Because she usually only took sixth and seventh years, hers was only a two year 'course', and she was rather surprised and impressed with how Harry was managing to keep up with the demanding pace she had been setting for him.

Pomfrey did say that, if Harry passed her little exam, he would have a small time medical certificate at the end of it all. The medical certificate would only be the equivalent of an 'emergency first-aider' or something like that, but it was still something.

She also said that, if he completed her second year of instruction, she would consider taking him on as an apprentice healer. Considering her reputation, being an apprentice to Poppy Pomfrey would be a very good thing, even better than being a trainee healer at Saint Mungo's.

Of course, with how much work Pomfrey was piling on Harry, it should be no surprise that she would be like that. She was a demanding taskmaster and Harry thought that, by the end of the 'course', he would have bloody well earned it. His work for Pomfrey by far eclipsed all of the other work he was doing combined, that was how much time and effort he was having to put into it.

xxxxx

Of course, Harry knew that he needed to relax every now and then so he didn't burn himself out, and he found he liked talking with Hagrid every now and then, as well as Neville. The two of them together though, now that was a formidable combination.

Hagrid seemed to know just about everything there was to know about creatures of all kinds. While he seemed to prefer the 'beasties' of the wizarding world, he proved to be just as knowledgeable about the harmless things like knarls, crups and nifflers.

Neville, on the other hand, was incredibly knowledgeable about all of the flora in the wizarding world, and he seemed to know a lot about muggle plants too. When the two of them had met for the first time, they had gotten into an intense discussion about wildlife of all kinds and Harry saw the beginnings of a strong friendship between the large man and the young boy.

It was while Harry was down in Hagrid's hut that his next 'mini adventure' began. He'd just had a study session with the group and he was heading down to see Hagrid with Neville at his side. Hermione had decided to tag along and was trying to get Harry to explain a bit of the more advanced Transfiguration stuff he was working on. Ron Weasley was also there, but that was more because he needed _serious _help to actually pass the coming exams.

Now, while Harry wasn't very fond of Ronald Weasley, he didn't really want the boy to fail the year. True, the boy was immature and childish, but he was _eleven_! Ronald Weasley was probably the only one of them that actually acted anything like their own ages.

Hermione had not really had any friends and constantly sought acknowledgement from authority figures, leaving her to develop an intense 'book-worm' personality and for her social skills to decline. Neville had been quite isolated as a child, too clumsy to really be amongst other pure bloods and not make a bit of a fool of himself, and his grandmother's incredibly overprotective streak didn't help things at all.

As for Harry, well, he was probably the most messed up one of the lot.

Anyway, the four of them were heading down to Hagrid's hut and Harry eventually broke down to Hermione's incessant nagging and quickly wrote down the answers she was asking for on a bit of parchment and handed it to her, adding a few quick diagrams to explain things better.

When they arrived at Hagrid's hut, they were surprised to find that all of the curtains were closed. Also rather strange was the way that Hagrid called out "Who is it?" Before opening the door to admit them into his hut. Everything seemed rather suspicious to Harry, even more so when he felt how hot it was in the room.

Now, Harry really isn't a heat person, most definitely not. In fact, if Harry had a fire mana conversion affinity, then that would be the most ridiculous and ironic thing there was. Harry had absolutely hated it when he'd been forced to look after the Dursleys' garden during the summer, especially when there was a heat wave.

Harry was most definitely a cold person. His favourite season was winter, his favourite colours were silver and black, he detested warm weather greatly, and he was absolutely bloody melting like a snowman in Hagrid's hut. One look at the fire though, was enough to tell him why things were like they were.

Harry stared flatly at Hagrid, wondering what the hell the man was playing at with one of those things. He almost missed the look that Hermione and Weasley shared, but they weren't subtle enough to go unnoticed by Harry, who regarded the two of them curiously. After all, it was no secret that Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger weren't exactly buddy buddy with each other.

Surprisingly enough, Neville also seemed to be 'in the know' about what was going on, if the look he also shared with them was any indication. All three of them looked at Harry, who merely looked back at them with a raised eyebrow. Hermione then seemed to bite the bullet and asked Hagrid a question.

"Hagrid, we were wondering if you could tell us what's guarding the Philosopher's Stone aside from the Cerberus." She said, and Harry had to resist rolling his eyes. He really should have known that someone else would figure it out sooner or later, and Hermione, if given prod in the right direction, really would be one of the first to do so.

Neville, being the only one looking at Harry when Hermione started talking, was also the only one to see no shock on Harry's face, merely amusement and a sort of exasperated acceptance. That confused Neville a bit, but he did make a mental note to ask Harry about it later.

"How do you know about Fluffy?" Hagrid asked, and Harry couldn't help but laugh at that name, drawing attention to himself.

"Our dear Gryffindors accepted a midnight duel against Draco Malfoy. The Slytherin didn't turn up and had, in fact, set Filch on them. They were then chased through the corridors, until Filch caught up with them, and they decided to hide behind the nearest door. Said door was locked, until Miss Granger unlocked it, and there was, in fact, a three-headed dog behind that door." Harry told him, a Cheshire smile appearing on his face.

"How do you know that!?" Weasley shouted with wide eyes, obviously not having expected Harry to know anything about that night.

Harry couldn't help his lip twitching in amusement. "You really are blind, aren't you? I was beside you the entire time. I was in the trophy room when Filch began to open the door, and I locked it with the 'Colloportus' charm, before I followed the lot of you. It was actually a rather interesting adventure, if I do say so myself. It's a shame that you were all to wound up to notice little old me."

"You were with us?" Hermione asked, her eye twitching. For some reason, Harry felt great amusement at getting just such a reaction out of her. He idly wondered if he could do it again, and how long it would take her to try and throttle him.

"Yep, I was. I tried to slow Fluffy down when we were all falling out of the door, but I wasn't very successful." Harry replied.

Hermione, who was seated at Hagrid's table, let her head fall and make contact with the wooden surface. Harry thought the solid thunk noise her head made as it connected was seriously amusing, and he couldn't help but continue grinning at the girl.

Ron Weasley obviously decided to put what Harry had just said aside, unlike Hermione who was braining herself on the table, and asked Hagrid. "So, do you know what else there is protecting the stone?"

Hagrid frowned at them all for a moment before answering. "Of course I can't. Number one, I don't know myself. Number two, you know too much already, so I wouldn't tell you even if I could. That stone's here for a good reason. It was almost stolen out of Gringotts- I suppose you worked that out too? Beats me _why_ you want to know anyway, it's protected here and that's that."

Hermione seemed to have collected herself and, despite her red and slightly bruised forehead, she still managed to give Hagrid the puppy fog eyes. "Oh, come on, Hagrid. You might not want to tell us, but you _do_ know, you know everything that goes on around here." Her voice was nearly dripping with honey, it was that disgustingly sweet, warm and flattering.

It was working too.

Hagrid's beard twitched and Harry could tell that he had a smile under all of that facial hair. Hermione continued her stupidly easily flattering and entreating of the large man. "We only wanted to know who had _done_ the guarding, really. We wondered who Dumbledore had trusted enough to help him, apart from you of course."

That last bit cinched it. Anyone could tell that Hagrid was Dumbledore's man through and through, so commenting on said Wizard trusting him with something important was a sure fire way to get him to let something slip. That train of thought came to a sudden crash when Harry realised exactly how _easy_ it would be to get information out of Hagrid, and who might have already done so.

"Well, I don't suppose it could hurt to tell you that." Hagrid said, looking fairly contemplative at that. "Let's see, he borrowed Fluffy from me... then some of the teachers did a bit of magic, enchantments and so on. Professor Sprout was one, Professor Flitwick another. Professor Mcgonagall did something as well, so did Professor Quirrel, and of course Dumbledore did something himself. Hang on, I almost forgot, Professor Snape helped too."

"Snape!?" Weasley exclaimed, looking rather horrified at the idea.

"Sure he helped. What, did you think Snape would try and steal it, do you? He was in on _protecting_ the stone, he isn't about to turn around and steal it." Hagrid said, shaking his head.

Harry, however, could tell that Neville, Hermione and Weasley thought differently though from the looks on their faces. That was strange, why would Granger suspect a professor? She was totally besotted with authority figures and it would take something big to knock her faith in one, no matter how much of a git he was.

Harry was thinking that someone might steal the stone too, but he wasn't suspecting Snape, but rather Quirrel. He doubted anyone would take him seriously though, except maybe Snape and Dumbledore. Everyone else seemed to see the harmless, and useless, stuttering fool he showed them, and didn't go digging any deeper.

"You're the only one that knows how to get past Fluffy, aren't you, Hagrid?" Neville asked anxiously. "You wouldn't tell anyone, would you? Not even one of the professors?"

Hagrid looked a little affronted at that. "No one knows, not a soul, no one except me and Dumbledore." The three Gryffindors looked rather relieved at that, but Harry decided to try his luck and spoke up himself.

"Oh, I forget to say this before, but thank you for my Christmas present." In point of fact, Harry _had_ thanked Hagrid already, but saying it again wouldn't hurt, and Hagrid might have forgotten it. "I wouldn't have thought there'd be much need of music playing skills in your occupation though. Is it a hobby of yours, or do you actually use music at all?" He asked, his tone light and conversational.

Harry got some odd looks from the Gryffindors, but Hagrid beamed at him, obviously glad of the change in subject. "I do like to play myself, but you're wrong, it is useful. Why, there are so many creatures that are calmed by a bit of music. Take Fluffy for example, play him a bit of music and he goes right off to sleep."

Harry rolled his eyes at that, but, quickly, before Hagrid had a chance to process what he had just said, Harry continued talking. "Is that so? I don't suppose that you've got any music written down, do you? You know, maybe a little something for me to practise on my flute?"

Harry engaged Hagrid in a surprisingly good conversation on music, but his eyes were examining the faces of the three Gryffindors. All of them had noticed Hagrid's slip, and all three were obviously wondering who else might have gotten him to accidentally spill the information the same way.

"Hagrid, can we have a window open or something? I'm bloody boiling?" Ron spoke up, pulling at his robes that were beginning to stick to his skin. Harry had had the mental acuity to not be wearing his robes right then, and his muggle clothing was a lot lighter and thinner than robes, and able to breathe better as well.

That still didn't mean he liked the heat though, even if he understood the reason for it.

"Can't, Ron." Hagrid told the redhead, his eyes glancing at his fire.

"Hagrid... what's that!?" Ah, finally, someone else noticed the damned thing.

"Ah!" Hagrid said, nervously fiddling with his beard. "Well... Erm... You see..."

"Where did you get it?" Ron asked, crouching over the fire to get a closer look at the egg underneath the kettle. "It must have cost a bloody fortune"

"I won it." Hagrid told them. "Last night. I was down in the village, having a few drinks in the Hog's Head, and I got into a game of cards with a stranger. I think he was quite glad to be rid of it, to be honest with you, and I was quite happy to take it off his hands too."

"But what are you going to do with it when it hatches?" Hermione squeaked.

"Well, I've been doing some reading?" Hagrid said, pulling a boom out from under his pillow. "Got this out of the Library – Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit – it's a bit out of date, of course, but everything's in here. Keep the egg in the fire, because their mothers breathe on them you see, and when it hatches, feed it a bucket of brandy mixed with chicken blood every half an hour. See here, there's a bit on how to recognise them. What I've got here is a Norwegian Ridgeback. They're rare, they are."

Harry narrowed his eyes in thought. With the large amount of time he spent in the library, you would think that he would notice someone of Hagrid's size and lack of subtlety wandering around, but he couldn't remember every catching sight of the large man.

Harry caught sight of the large guy's big smile and sighed. Well, who was he to rain on Hagrid's parade. There were people who bound dragons to themselves, summoners primarily, so Harry didn't think he should really bother trying to talk Hagrid out of what he was trying to work, he rather doubted it would work anyway.

xxxxx

Neville caught up to Harry shortly after they had left Hagrid's, and Ron and Hermione had disappeared as well. The round-faced boy watched as Harry took a seat by the lake, his back against a tree, and held out his hand. Loki, Harry's raven, soon landed on his outstretched limb, and Harry began to smooth down his feathers and look him over.

After a while, Neville gathered himself together enough to speak. "You, er, didn't really look surprised when we mentioned the Philosopher's Stone." He said, rather lamely.

Harry shrugged. "Someone else was going to figure it out sooner or later. If given a nudge in the right direction, I expected Granger to be one of the quickest on the uptake. I'm surprised Weasley managed to work it out though, the books he was looking in with Finnegan were far too recent to feature that alchemist."

"How long have you known?" Neville asked curiously.

Harry shrugged in reply. "Quite some time." He replied "Does it really matter? I am wondering how you three did end up knowing, and why you didn't think of asking me about it, however. Care to share?"

Neville shuffled his feet a little. "I only found out about it last night, same for the other two. I had eaten a chocolate frog, but I don't collect the cards, and so I just gave it to Ron, because he's always talking about his collection. Well, he talks about chocolate frog cards when he's not talking about food or Quidditch that is. Ron shouted something about Nicholas Flamel and Alchemy, and that got Hermione's attention. She asked him what he was screaming about, and said something to her, I didn't hear what, which had her rushing off and coming back with this huge book."

Neville took a breath and continued. "After that, the two of them starting talking about something, and I kind of interrupted them and read what had Hermione so hyped up. After that, they kind of inducted me into the 'group', so to speak. I wanted to tell you, but I guess some of Hermione's rivalry with you shone through, and we ended up deciding to see what we could find out by ourselves."

Harry nodded his head. "I see, that's rather interesting. Have fun, and be careful." He said, then he caught sight of Neville's amazed expression and raised an eyebrow. "Did you expect me to try and warn you off? Whether you actually risk yourselves is no business of mine, and I'm sure one of you at least would do it regardless, so the best I can do is minimise the risk."

He paused for a moment. "Sprout is a specialist in Herbology, so the possibility exists that she used a plant as part of her defence. Maybe you should try looking around the greenhouses to see if anything is missing, see if there's a gap anywhere that a plant should fill. Flitwick has shown he favours animation charms, and has used them to great effect as a duellist in the past, so he might use something like that. Mcgonagall is more difficult to think up a possibility, she's a Quidditch nut and is fond of chess in addition to being a master of Transfiguration, maybe she'll include one or both of them. Snape, as you know, is a potions master, so you might want to have some bezoars with you in case of poisons. I haven't a clue what Dumbledore would put down there, but I'd imagine it's something weird or that requires you to think a certain way..."

Harry recalled the Mirror of Erised, and that Dumbledore had said it was being moved soon. "Scratch that, it might serve you better to look up magical objects from history, maybe mirrors or something like that. As for Quirrel, beware of trolls." Harry well remembered the troll he'd let loose at Halloween and how Dumbledore had said there was a valid reason for him to lead such a beast into the castle.

"Th-Thanks." Neville stuttered a bit, surprised by how much Harry was capable of telling him. He also realised that Harry had also been the one to uncover Fluffy's weakness for them. The black-haired boy had been right, doing all of this would mean they were more likely to survive _if_ they actually attempted to go through with the whole thing.

Harry bid Neville goodbye, and he waited until the boy was well and truly away from him, before he got on with what he'd planned to do in that particular spot. It was where he usually practised Belkan and Mid-Childan magic, out of sight and away from the castle. Trying to imagine his mind like a computer, using his new method of Occlumency, Harry muttered the spell. "Bloody Daggers."

He grinned widely when no less than nine daggers appeared in front of him.

xxxxx

It was amusing for Harry to watch as Ron and Hermione dissolved into panic about the dragon that Hagrid was hatching. Neville seemed to be taking on some of Harry's calm and wasn't as frantic about the whole thing as the other two, but he was still a little agitated.

Hermione did, multiple times, try to talk Hagrid into getting rid of the egg. That wasn't so easy, especially since Hagrid had started the incubation process by heating the egg in his fire, meaning it needed constant heat so the dragon inside the egg didn't die.

Harry did notice, one time, when Draco Malfoy was near Weasley and Hermione when they were discussing the dragon in perhaps too loud voices. The expression on the blonde Slytherin's face didn't bode well for any of them, not at all, and Harry's gut feeling would prove true.

As Harry heard from Neville, Malfoy had apparently learned about the dragon. When it had been hatching, Ron and Hermione, along with Neville but not Harry, since he didn't really feel like getting involved in the mess, had gone to Hagrid's hut and Malfoy had been looking through a gap in the curtains.

Malfoy had been smirking like mad after that, and none of them were left in any doubt that Malfoy did actually know _exactly_ what was going on. Harry was surprised that Malfoy had not yet done anything about it, but maybe he wanted to let them sweat, maybe make them do something reckless.

Harry could see that they were getting rather nervous, knowing that Draco knew about the dragon, but not knowing what he planned to do about them, nor why he had done nothing so far. It was this, more than anything else, that helped them finally convince Hagrid to give Norberta up.

The dragon had initially been called Norbert, but Harry had noticed that the winged lizard did not have the right, well, _equipment_ to warrant a male name. Hagrid had been rather attached to the name though, and instead of changing it completely, they merely feminised it.

It was, surprisingly, Ronald Weasley that provided the answer about what to do about Norbert. One of his elder brothers, Charlie, worked on a dragon preserve, and they were always willing to take in another one, especially a rare breed like a Norwegian Ridgeback.

In Charlie's reply letter, he asked them to get the dragon up the tallest tower on Saturday, where it would be picked up by some friends of his. Unfortunately, when Ron went to tell Hagrid this, he relaxed and stopped paying attention to his surroundings. Norberta took this opportunity to bite the redhead.

Unfortunately, her fangs proved to be at least somewhat poisonous and Ron was admitted to the Infirmary. It was quite amusing for Harry to hear Weasley claim he got it off a dog that ran at him out of the Forbidden Forest, especially so when he later heard Pomfrey muttering under her breath about 'taking her for a fool, as if she couldn't recognise a dragon bite when she saw one'.

When Saturday arrived, Harry met Hermione and Neville at Hagrid's hut. He wasn't going with them, but he had no issue with lending them James Potter's invisibility cloak. He also disillusioned them, as well as the crate that contained Norberta, and quickly etched a Berkano rune on it as well to muffle, if not silence the dragon within.

He waved them off, before heading up to the castle himself.

The next morning, Harry was rather surprised to see Gryffindor were a hundred points down, Slytherin were fifty down from yesterday... and so was Ravenclaw? Harry looked at Neville and Hermione, seeing the two of them looking rather ashamed of themselves. Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy's cheeks burned with embarrassment, so where did Ravenclaw's points loss come from?

Quickly, he focused his gaze on the head table, locking eyes with Dumbledore who was looking over towards him, a disappointed expression gracing his features.


	16. Forbidden Forest

AN: Chapter sixteen here, obviously, and we're drawing close to the end of the year. I think there's only maybe three chapters left of first year. Oh, I would like to ask for names for the one who people can guess will come along at the start of next chapter. I'm sure that those of you who know their Nanoha can guess where I'm going with this by the end of this chapter. The next chapter shouldn't be long in coming, and boy will Harry be unhappy when he wakes up. Hehehehe, that's going to be fun to write.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 16 – Forbidden Forest

Harry focused on his breakfast after that, refusing to look back at the headmaster who was regarding him with disappointment. Deciding to get answers for himself, from a rather reliable source that no one knew he had access to, Harry telepathically contacted the Sorting Hat.

_~Hey, hat, I have a question for you. Well, I have more than one actually and I think I already know the answers, but I'll ask anyway. Why is Ravenclaw fifty points down from yesterday and what the bloody heck is the headmaster thinking?~_

_~Mr. Potter?~_ The hat queried. _~Of course it is, you are the only person who seems capable of contacting me like this. Ravenclaw is fifty points down because Mcgonagall detracted fifty points from everyone involved in the little incident last night and assigned them a detention. Even though you were not caught with them, Dumbledore added you in for reasons only known to him. As for what the headmaster is thinking? Well, I can only guess.~_

Harry rolled his eyes. _~Can he do that? I mean, can he really just arbitrarily assign and take away points without any reason for it? As much as Snape is loathed, he at least states a reason for point deductions, even if that reason is as stupid as breathing too loudly.~_

_~Any member of the staff can give and take points. As the headmaster is the one who is supposed to be looking over them, he can do it too.~_ Harry then heard the hat mentally chuckling over their link. _~You have given me an idea though, and it'll really stick in Dumbledore's craw as well. Ahem. I, the Sorting Hat of Hogwarts, do award Harry Potter twenty points for a masterfully executed prank.~_

Harry, caught by surprise, let his eyes flicker over to the hour glasses that recorded the house points. He watched as twenty more jewels fell into Ravenclaws glass. He then looked at the head table and saw Dumbledore frowning, looking up and down the table, seeing that all of the professors were there and none of them had dispensed any points.

_~What just happened?~_ Harry asked.

The hat replied. _~Technically, even though I am not a teacher, I am still a member of staff. As such, I do have the ability to give and take points, just like everyone else, even the caretaker. Filch doesn't do so because he prefers to give detentions, and he likes to see the magically inclined do things by hand, he is a bitter squib after all. If you were asking what the points themselves were for, it was the prank you played on Draco Malfoy a while back. Keep pranking, and not getting caught, and I'll keep on giving you points!~_

Harry had to stop himself laughing at that. The headmaster thought to try and control him through use of house points, did he? Well, aside from all of the points that Harry earned in lesson, he could now gain even more by pranking people, and that would surely irritate the old coot no end.

_~Wait.~_ Harry stopped a moment, something just occurring to him. _~You said that Mcgonagall caught people last night, how did she manage that? Aside from the cloak I lent them, I disillusioned them and the crate, as well as putting a silencing rune on it. How the heck did they manage to get caught despite all of that?~_

_~It was rather stupid really.~_ The hat replied. _~A disillusionment charm does not render someone intangible after all, and they ran right into Filch. They left the cloak at the top of the steps, too busy being merry when they saw Malfoy get caught. Mcgonagall came along and cancelled the disillusionment charm, letting her see just who she'd caught. The story's all over the castle, the portraits have been talking about it all night.~_

Harry almost face-palmed at that. _~Really? Malfoy got caught, so they forgot themselves __and then got caught as well? How is Dumbledore justifying my punishment anyway? Mcgonagall will know that she only caught Neville, Hermione and, apparently, Malfoy last night, not me.~_

The hat mentally snorted. _~Mcgonagall won't say anything against it if Dumbledore is the one doing it. If I wasn't always sat in the headmaster's office and knew it wasn't happening, I'd suspect that she and he were- Well, I think you're a little too young to hear what I was about to say, but suffice to say, she's an avid Dumbledore supporter.~_

Harry knew what the hat had been implying with its statement, but he mentally repressed the thought and tried to wipe it out. To distract himself, he continued his conversation with the hat. _~ Fine. What's the detention going to be, anyway? I'd imagine there'll be some purpose behind it if I'm being included in this damnable thing.~_

The hat's mental voice turned serious. _~You're right, he does have a plan of sorts for the detention. Tell me, what do you know about the uses of unicorn blood?~_

Harry blinked at that, and cast his mind back to the masses of books he had been reading recently. _~Not much, I'm afraid. The horn and tail hair are commonly used in potions and wands, but the blood? I found one reference, when I was looking up Nicholas Flamel, that suggested it might be a possible ingredient in the Philosopher's Stone, but that's about it.~_

The hat was rather impressed that Harry knew that much. _~I see. Well, Unicorn blood is rather renowned for its immense healing properties, __being able to keep someone alive even when they are on the brink of death__. The problem is that when not freely given, it carries a heavy curse. If forcefully taken against the unicorn's will, any that drink it will be cursed most severely. They will be lethargic, their bodies racked with pain, their magic will be weakened, their throats will always be dry, and there will be other, more unpleasant, effects as well.~_

_~So something to avoid then. That's fine by me, I have no intention of drinking unicorn blood at all. What's that got to do with the detention though?~_ Harry asked, wondering where this was leading.

_~It just so happens that there have been several unicorns in the Forbidden Forest that have been injured, and even killed, recently. Strangely enough, this tends to happen around the time that Professor Quirrel leaves the castle. Dumbledore wishes to force a confrontation between the two of you, and make it look like an accident.~_ The hat informed him.

Harry was confused at that. _~He wants to force a confrontation between us? Why?~_ He asked.

Harry felt the hat's discomfort over their link, but Harry waited patiently for an answer. Reinforce, having been listening to the conversation, also waited to see what sort of answer was forthcoming from the magical talking hat. They got an answer after a minute of silence.

_~A prophecy.~ _The hat eventually replied. _~One given to the headmaster before you were even born. Quirrel is being possessed, even though it is willingly, by the shade of Voldemort. Dumbledore knows this, but he's trying to make things turn out 'for the best', as he would put it. Given the wording of the prophecy, it is likely that only you are capable of actually taking the dark lord out.~_

_~A prophecy?~_ Harry wondered sceptically.

_~Don't dismiss that branch of magic out of hand.~_ The Sorting Hat said. _~While it tends to be rather imprecise and vague, prophecies do exist, and they do come true. How a prophecy is interpreted, however, is always something that people will disagree on. What the headmaster is doing, is trying to fit the prophecy into his way of thinking, and there's no guarantee that his way of thinking is the same one that the prophecy requires.~_

_~What is this prophecy?~_ Reinforce asked, her voice laced with steel. Harry was hers, her son, her friend, her brother, her master, her something else, she didn't know, but he was hers and no one else's. If she had not been so focused on what the hat was saying, she might have wondered where those possessive thoughts had come from.

_~ The actually wording of the prophecy is not important, but here is the gist of it: Someone will be born at the end of the 'seventh month'. This child will be the one who can defeat the 'Dark Lord', and will possess the 'Power he knows not'. That's all that's really necessary, the bare bones of it in fact. Oh, wait, the 'Dark Lord' will 'mark him as his equal too.~_ The hat finished, leaving a heavy silence over the mental link.

xxxxx

Harry went to his morning classes, acting as normal as he could, but his thoughts were on the prophecy that the hat had told him about. He was... rather sceptical about prophecies in general, but he thought it wise to trust the hat on this one. If prophecies really did exist in the Wizarding World, then ignoring them could have some quite terrible repercussions, even if they did work out in the end.

_~Harry.~_ Came Reinforce's voice in his head. _~I can feel what you're thinking, you know, and, well, be careful. It's all well and good to prepare for a possible fight with this guy, but don't forget to live in the here and now too.~_

Harry gained a soft smile on his face as he heard the concern in Reinforce's voice. _~Don't worry, Rein, I won't forget. What victory would it be if all I remained afterwards was a killer? Someone who is only capable of fighting and fighting, not knowing anything else? No, I will not forget to be myself sometimes. I'm sure that if I ever even started doing so, you would knock some sense into me.~_

Harry didn't pay much attention in Charms class that morning. They were comparing animation charms to compulsion charms, the latter being on the second year syllabus and the former on the first. Harry had already studied ahead and read about those charms, he tended to use them quite liberally on his transfigured creatures.

Harry actually loved compulsion charms, he thought they were absolutely amazing. While dominating the will of someone else wasn't something he really liked the idea of, using one to make someone do something for a prank (like transfiguring their clothes into a ball gown and dancing in the middle of the Great Hall) he thought was acceptable.

It was also a spell that required mental strength, rather than magical strength or control, and that is something that Harry was working on building up, not that Harry didn't have magical strength, just that he was working on improving his control rather than his power.

xxxxx

At lunchtime, as had become habit for Harry, he picked up a lunch from the kitchens and headed off to the Ancient Runes classroom, where he would meet up with and talk to Beth and Septima, as they insisted he called them when it was just the three of them.

Harry had found that he got along quite well with the two professors. Septima had a reputation of being rather strict amongst the student body, but Harry had found that she also had a rather playful side too. Her strict demeanour was what she called her 'professional teacher' mode.

Both Septima and Beth were two of the more 'overlooked' teachers at Hogwarts. Oh, the hormonal male students, and even a fair few females, fantasised about the attractive professors, there was no doubt about that. However, the two of them tended to fade into the background, only really referred to in relation to the subjects they taught.

"So, what's this that we've been hearing about something going on last night?" Beth asked as soon as Harry was through the door.

Septima had an easy grin on her face and added on to what Beth was saying. "I've been hearing the most ridiculous of stories, dragons tend to feature in them quite a bit, and there's also mention of two lions and a snake."

Harry snorted. He was going to tell these two, he trusted them. "Hagrid won a dragon egg in a poker game. Of course, being the kind of guy that always wanted a pet dragon, he thinks it a brilliant idea to hatch the egg and raise the damned reptile."

Harry sat down at the table with the two professors. "Of course, I'm sure you can see the problems with this. Anyway, Draco Malfoy found out about the dragon, so it needed to be gotten rid off. Thankfully, Ronald Weasley's older brother, Charlie, works with dragons in Romania. Luckily, he had some friends visiting him that could drop by Hogwarts to pick up said dragon before they headed off to see him."

Harry began munching on a ham salad sandwich, swallowed, then continued his little story. "Neville and Hermione were the ones who were tasked with taking Norberta, the dragon, up the tallest tower. I lent them James Potter's invisibility cloak, cast disillusionment charms on them, and also scratched a Berkano rune on Norberta's crate."

"So how did you get caught if that's all you did? And why did it cost fifty points? That's a bit steep." Beth asked, one eyebrow raised in curiosity. Septima was only paying them a little bit of attention. Once again, Harry had copied out the array and formula to a Mid-Childan spell and she had her eyes glued to it.

Harry rolled his eyes. "I didn't. From what I've heard, Neville and Hermione forgot the cloak at the top of the tower, Malfoy had been caught and they were too busy celebrating to remember to take it, then crashed into Filch on the way back down the stairs. He managed to keep a hold of them until Mcgonagall came along and removed the disillusionment charm."

"So how did _you_ end up punished?" Septima asked, just about managing to drag her eyes away from the formula that was making her salivate. Seriously, where was Harry getting these ridiculously complex and truly intriguing formulae from, she would love to know.

Harry paused for a moment, unwilling to talk bad about the headmaster in front of two of his employees. "I would guess that the cloak was recognised, I'm also the only person those involved knew who could cast the disillusionment charm. The portraits might have also seen me." He said, shrugging his shoulders.

"In other words, Dumbledore's meddling again." Harry, who'd been taking a drink at the time, almost choked at Septima's off-hand comment.

He looked up at the two of them to see they both had flat expressions on their faces. Seeing the look on his face, Beth rolled her eyes. "Neither of us are blind, and we don't worship the ground he walks on like Minerva does. You haven't really been here long enough to see it yet, but the dear headmaster does play favourites and he does get involved with all sorts of things."

Septima nodded her agreement. "Yeah, I remember as much from my time as a student. No offence, Harry, but your father got away with a lot of things that would have gotten me expelled with just a slap on the wrist. There was a rumour that your father and his friends nearly got a student killed, but nothing was ever proved."

Harry shook his head and raised his hands up. "No offence taken. Honestly, an honest opinion of James Potter and his wife would be much more appreciated than a few hundred people saying 'they were good people'. Mcgonagall says that I seem to have inherited my father's skill with Transfiguration, even if it is my worst subject."

"An honest opinion. Huh?" Beth said, looking over to the side, before looking back at Harry. "Me and Septima were a few years older than your parents, but they were all pretty well known throughout the school. There was James, your father, Sirius Black, his best mate, Remus Lupin, the intelligent one, and Peter Pettigrew, the hanger on."

Septima then picked up the topic. "Your father and Black seemed to be competing for how many times they could get laid by the end of their time at Hogwarts. I swear, if there wasn't a contraceptive ward over Hogwarts, you would have had several hundred elder siblings."

"Remember that time he tried to get us into a threesome?" Beth asked, a slightly disgusted look appearing on her face.

"I'd rather not if it's all the same to you." Septima answered her, before looking back at Harry. "He _was_ naturally skilled at Transfiguration, I'll give him that, but he never really applied himself in lesson, saving all of his effort for pranks and the like. He was also such an arrogant little bastard, lording his parents' riches over everyone's heads."

"It was a big blow to him when his parents were killed." Beth said. "He probably thought they were invincible because they were _Potters_. Honestly, the way he talked, you would think his family personally saved the world every time some new problem came along."

"Enough about him." Septima said. "We still have to talk about Lily Evans." There was a grimace on Septima's face.

"The 'prettiest girl in school'." Beth shook her head. "No offence, Harry, but her 'holier than thou' attitude did rub some people the wrong way. She was a strong advocate of the 'light', and Severus Snape was viewed as something of a charity case of hers. He was someone who was heading for the dark, but she kept pulling him back, or trying to at least."

"When it became obvious that James Potter had claimed her, her status really shot up. For a muggle-born, she had a rather a lot of influence." Septima added. "She had her good points of course, most people do, but she was definitely part of a 'clique', as it were, of popular girls."

"I see." Harry muttered, "That sounds... interesting." Both Beth and Septima raised eyebrows at Harry's bland and flat tone of voice, wondering what would cause him to have such a little interest in his parents. Neither of them had missed, however, that he had referred to his parents as 'James Potter and his wife', not familiarly at all.

The three of them went on to talk about the things Harry had brought with him this time, interspersed with some other things on a variety of subjects. It was just as he was leaving, actually being half-way out of the door, when the two of them called out to him from behind.

"Hey, Harry, take twenty points for your burgeoning skills in Runes." Beth said, giving Harry a wink as she did so.

"Take twenty for your skill with Arithmancy too." Septima added, a small, sly grin on her face.

Harry merely shook his head as he left the room. Dumbledore's fifty point deduction had now been well and truly countered by the Sorting Hat and those two witches. All that was left now was a detention, one that Harry was actually looking forward to if he was honest with himself.

xxxxx

It was a while before Harry actually received a note, informing him that his detention was that evening at eleven. It kind of made Harry chuckle, they were being punished for being out after curfew in a restricted area by being put into a restricted area after curfew.

Harry met the others down in the Entrance Hall as they waited for Filch to lead them to Hagrid's hut. Harry was wearing a hooded trench coat that had some obscuring charms on the hood, some fairly basic illusion spells. That was so Harry could unison with Reinforce and no one would be any the wiser.

Harry looked at Malfoy, who was sneering at them, then let his eyes slide over to Neville and Hermione. He rolled his eyes at the pair of them and spoke aloud. "Was it really that difficult to remain undetected? From what I hear, you ran right into him, you idiots."

Neville shuffled his feet and looked at the floor. Hermione blushed red and seemed to focus her attention on a bit off wall over Harry's shoulder. He shook his head at them and settled in to wait, he was a bit early after all. It wasn't a long wait, though, eleven o'clock soon came around and Filch led them out of the castle and towards Hagrid's hut.

Harry didn't really pay much attention to Filch and his comments, other than to quietly snort at how much of a scaredy-cat Malfoy was being. It wasn't a full moon night, so there were no werewolves to worry about, not to mention that centaurs weren't massively fond of werewolves. Oh, they tolerated them, but only so long as they behaved themselves.

They soon arrived at Hagrid's hut, where Filch dropped them off with one last ominous comment, before he headed back to the castle. Harry took this opportunity to begin his 'pre-fight' set-up as it were. 'Draconifors' was used to create two dragons the size of large dogs to act as his personal guards. He hit them with compulsion charms with the simple instruction of protecting him.

'Felifors' produced a clowder of a dozen big cats, specifically panthers. These were Harry's 'Ground troops', as it were. 'Avifors' produced about two dozen eagles that Harry had dubbed his 'Aerial troops', as well. He looked up at everyone staring at him.

"What?" He asked. "We're going into the Forbidden Forest, and I'd rather be safe than sorry."

'Safe' was one way of putting it. Harry was being flanked by his two transfigured dragons, one either side of him, while the panthers had spread out a bit and were in a loose circle around him. Some of the eagles were sat in trees nearby, but others were circling above.

All in all, Harry was feeling pretty safe. He felt a bit knackered from having used a fair bit more magic all in one go than he usually did in a week, but he wasn't going to let a little thing like that get to him. Transfiguration was as battle-oriented as his Terran magic currently got, and he could only do so much with Belkan and Mid-Childan style magic at present.

Not that he didn't use either of those styles, because he fully intended to. He cast a Bloody Dagger into his hand, as a last resort if anything got up close and personal to him and, when they entered the forest, he was planning to use a Wide Area Search to track the unicorn and what was attacking it down.

There was a bit of a risk with Harry using Wide Area Search. Because of the large amount of information that would be funnelled right into Harry's brain, with no assistance from a device, he was most definitely going to develop a severe headache at the least.

Still, that was an issue for when it actually happened. For now, Hagrid was explaining what was going on and what they were going to be doing about it. Neville looked damn near petrified at the prospect of going into the forest, much less searching for a downed unicorn and whatever may have taken it out.

Hermione looked determined, but Harry could clearly see her gulping nervously about what their detention would entail. Malfoy, the last student to be punished, looked absolutely bloody terrified. Harry supposed that, growing up in the Wizarding World, Malfoy _knew_ how hard it was to take a unicorn out, and that whatever could have done so would have been something better avoided, especially by eleven and twelve year olds.

"This here is unicorn blood." Hagrid was saying as he knelt by a small puddle of the silver coloured liquid. "There's blood all over the place, so that means the unicorn is heavily wounded and it's been staggering about the place for a while now." The large man stood up. "I want no heroics tonight, you here me? If anyone runs into any trouble, throw up red sparks. If anyone finds the unicorn, send up green sparks. Practise both now, so there's no messing up later."

The four students showed that they were fully capable of sending coloured sparks high into the air, and Hagrid nodded before turning and heading into the forest. Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy all stuck close to Hagrid, hurrying to keep up with the large man's steps.

Harry stayed a little away from him and off to the side, getting his transfigured creatures to spread out around them. Fang, Hagrid's dog that possessed only one head, seemed to like the Panthers and stuck with them, following Harry's instructions just like they did.

Soon enough, however, the group came across a fork in the path. Silver blood could be seen down both of those paths, so that meant they would have to split up. Hagrid looked at the group of kids with him, even he could see how three of them were nearly glued to his side.

He shared a look with Harry, who merely gave him a small smile and a nod, indicating one of the paths. "Alright then." Hagrid was saying. "We're going to be splitting up here. Know that nothing in this forest will hurt you, so long as you're with either me or Fang. Also, stay on the path and don't wander off."

Hagrid's huge arm, with his crossbow in hand, indicated one path. "I'll be going this way. Neville, Hermione and Malfoy are with me. Harry, you go down other path and take Fang with you. Remember, red sparks for trouble, green sparks for unicorn."

Harry nodded his head, and wandered down the indicated path, his transfigured horde coming along with him, Fang amongst them. Hagrid and the other three students headed down the other path, Neville and Hermione watching Harry's back with concern as he disappeared into the darkness.

xxxxx

"Wide Area Search." Harry muttered under his breath, casting one of Nanoha Takamachi's spells that Reinforce had absorbed from the Japanese girl. Pink orbs of light appeared around him, and immediately began to dart between the trees, spreading out in a circle with Harry at the centre.

Harry leaned against a tree as his mind was assaulted with a great deal of information at a rapid rate. It was like each orb was an eye that could look in three hundred and sixty degrees at once. Harry wondered if that was what it was like for spiders with eight eyes, but he focused back onto what each orb could 'see'.

One pink sphere zoomed past Hagrid's group, and Harry caught the startled look on Hermione's face as it flew by. A centaur was also spooked by it and tried to hit it with an arrow, but it was too fast for that, not to mention it wasn't a physical object that even could be damaged by an arrow.

Ah, what was this? It looked like a cloak that was being dragged along the ground. A dementor? It matched the descriptions he'd found in books. No, that hand peeking out was definitely a human hand, or at least human-like. It was most likely Quirrel then, drinking unicorn blood to sustain himself. Yes, it was, he was stooped over a small puddle that he was lapping up like a dog.

The priority here though was the unicorn, where was that? If he could get the unicorn sorted out, then he'd see about killing Quirrel, before he managed to kill him. Harry's search spell found the silver pools of unicorn's blood, and began to hunt them out, looking for places where it was more recent.

There! A clearing a ways ahead. The unicorn looked to be in pretty bad shape, large wounds littered its body and it was staggering drunkenly about the place. Those injuries looked really nasty, and Harry wondered if the unicorn could even survive for much longer.

Dismissing his search spell, Harry rushed forward, ignoring his pounding head as much as he could. He knew the way to the unicorn's clearing now, and he thought that every second might count, so he wasn't going to dawdle about the place and risk it dying.

The clowder of panthers and Fang seemed to enjoy the chance to run, easily keeping pace with Harry. The eagles he'd transfigured were grouped overhead, the lot of them flying in formation over his head, dodging around the trees in their way.

Harry burst into the clearing and saw the unicorn. Without thinking, he shot green sparks into the air and slid to his knees by the beautiful creature's side. His wand in hand, he began to cast what healing spells he knew, trying to save the unicorn. He didn't know if it was going to work though, the unicorn had lost an awful lot of blood and spells couldn't replenish that. Harry didn't even know whether a blood-replenishing potion meant for wizard use would work on a unicorn either, and he didn't have one with him at the time either.

Only the growling of one of his panthers alerted Harry to something behind him. He instinctively threw himself to one side, which probably saved his life. A spell of some kind had come from behind and had been aimed at his back. Instead, it hit him in the wrist, turning it and his hand into a mutilated mess, causing him to drop his wand.

Harry span and saw what he had first thought was a dementor, but he 'knew' was in fact Quirrelmort, his possessed Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor. Harry threw himself into a role, grabbing his wand with his left hand, and he came up with it pointed at Quirrelmort.

"Oppugno!" He cried, causing his transfigured creatures to attack. The pain from his right hand was intense, and Harry still had a pounding headache from the Wide Area Search, so he wasn't exactly thinking straight at the time.. "Photon Lancer, Genocide Shift!" He cried, calling up as many little orbs as he could and launching them at his enemy.

Slightly more than twenty small spheres of magic appeared, launching themselves at Quirrelmort at high speed. Unfortunately, that wasn't fast enough, as the cloaked figure snapped a shield into place. That wasn't a 'Protego', nor any other shield that Harry recognised.

The shield shattered after the seventeenth shot, so it was fairly powerful for a Terran shield, but Quirrelmort had not been idle during that time, and nor had Harry. Harry's transfigured creatures were being slaughtered by Quirrelmort, he'd already lost eight of his panthers and half of his eagles.

Harry, keeping one eye on what was happening with Quirrel, continued to try and heal the unicorn, using any method he could think of. He only seemed to be slowing down the inevitable though, as the unicorns breath became more laboured and slowed down more and more.

A crashing noise came from the trees in the distance, coming closer and closer. That distraction allowed both Harry and Quirrelmort to sneak a hit in each. Harry's shoulder shattered from a hex Quirrelmort had thrown at him, and Harry's Bloody Daggers managed to embed themselves in Quirrelmort's gut.

The cloaked figure retreated, throwing a few more hexes over its shoulder, one of them clipping Harry's head and causing his sight to become blurry and his breath laboured. Harry looked up at what had come crashing through the trees and saw Neville, Hermione, Malfoy, Hagrid and an unknown centaur.

Knowing he was on the verge of passing out, Harry looked at the unicorn and took a deep breath. He placed both of his hands on the dying creature's side, and prepared to do something he had been planning to do to Loki. It was then that he realised he needed help to pull it off.

Damn it! Why didn't he think to unison with Reinforce earlier! He could have done so much more if that was the case, but he was obviously not thinking clearly at the time. Still, he needed her now, and she answered him, entering a unison with him and assisting him in casting the spell he needed.

Hagrid, Firenze, Hermione, Neville and Malfoy watched as the unicorn seemed to breath its last. Even Malfoy was touched at the sight, the purity of the dying creature reaching out to something buried deep inside the boy. They saw Harry law his hands on the side of the unicorn, and they knew saving the creature was an effort in futility.

Then there was a flash of light, and when it cleared, Harry Potter now sported silver hair. If anyone could have seen his eyes, they would have been able to see that both were a deep red colour, but the angle was wrong, Harry was knelt sideways on to them and his hair obscured their view.

A large magical circle appeared around Harry and the unicorn, which drew in one last shuddering breath as Harry forced as much magic as he could into the spell he was now trying to cast. This had not been done before, the target of this sort of spell was usually a cat, a dog, a wolf, something mundane, not a magical creature and certainly not something as powerful as a unicorn.

There was a bright flash of light that lit up the clearing like a beacon. When it faded, the onlookers saw that Harry had collapsed to one side, but it was something else which caught their attention. There was no longer a unicorn in the clearing with him, or at least not one they would recognise as a unicorn.


	17. After the Forest

AN: Here's chapter seventeen, and I hope that I portrayed everyone appropriately. Next chapter, I think, will be the penultimate chapter of this year. After the year is over, Harry will really start to deviate from canon. Of course, there will be certain events that remain the same (I've got to have some fun with Lockhart and the dueling club for example), but more and more things will change. I hope the previous chapter shows that, while Harry does have a better skillset than in canon, he's not super strong. I made a mistake with Fate's Gamble, making that Harry a little difficult to put into fight scenes, and, while this Harry is damn powerful, he won't curb stomp everyone.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 17 – After the Forest

Harry came to blearily and blinked several times before his brain kicked in. His mind thought over what he last remembered, and he came to one conclusion: Quirrelmort needed to die. Harry was not homicidal, nor did he particularly enjoy the thought of killing, but this had been, what, three times that he'd been at risk because of him?

Granted, the troll hadn't been directed at him, but he'd still ended up facing off against it, no matter how easily killed it was. The Quidditch thing had been absolutely ridiculous, and Harry was wondering why no one else seemed to be asking any questions about the obvious attack.

Now, after what had happened in the Forbidden Forest, Harry had had enough. He'd waited, patiently at that, for someone to actually do something about the problem. He'd expressed his concerns to others, authority figures at that, and not a damn thing had been done about it.

Harry was also wondering how powerful Voldemort was. Granted, Harry had beaten him back, but how did he really match up? Harry's pre-transfigured creatures had done most of the work, and Quirrelmort would be nowhere near Voldemort's power level.

The sorting hat said that drinking unicorn blood weakened your magic, and that it was only a shade of the bastard that was possessing Quirrel. If a weakened shade could put Harry in the hospital wing like this, he really didn't want to know what a fully powered up Dark Lord would be capable of.

It was then that Harry began paying attention to where he was. It was a place he was familiar with, the Hospital Wing. He sat up in the bed and looked at the table beside him. On it, he saw three potion bottles, recognising all three of them. One was a calming draught, the second a mild pain reliever, and the third one was bruise balm.

Harry wasn't feeling particularly agitated, so he ignored the first potion. He did ache a little, and his head was pounding a bit, so he measured out a small dose of the pain reliever and downed it, feeling the near instant relief that potions tended to give. He examined his body, but only found a few small bruises, so he ignored the third potion as well.

He swung his feet over the side of the bed, stood up and began stretch himself out, loosening his joints. He looked around, and found the bed next to him had its curtains drawn all the way around, but that seemed to be the only other occupied bed in the room.

Harry heard footsteps coming from behind him, so he turned around. He saw Pomfrey coming his way, along with some company. The healer's eyes drifted to the potions she had left out for him, and rolled her eyes when she saw he'd only taken one of the three.

Dumbledore, who was one of those there with Pomfrey, was chatting with three others with him. Recognising one as the current Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, Harry wondered what the heck was going on here. One of the others was Susan Bones' aunt, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. The last of the group wore an all concealing robe and had heavy obscuration charms on him or herself.

Harry set himself down on the side of his bed, and waited for the four of them to get there. He wondered what day it was, and let his eyes flicker over to the calender behind the healer's station near the doors. Huh, it seemed that he'd been out of it for a full day and a bit.

"Hello there, Harry." Dumbledore said with a smile, his eyes twinkling merrily.

"Greetings, Headmaster. I must say, this is unusual, do all of the patients in the Infirmary receive a visit from such distinguished individuals?" He let his eyes flicker over the others and looked for what reaction his words had on them.

Amelia Bones raised an eyebrow at the flat voice he greeted the headmaster in, correctly guessing that the two weren't on the best of terms with each other right then. Fudge seemed to swell when he called them 'distinguished individuals, and ignored what else he said. The unknown individual didn't seem to react, and the headmaster didn't seem to cringe in the slightest when Harry spoke to him, but the twinkle in his eyes did dim slightly.

"No, they don't, Harry." Pomfrey told him. "They're also not usually kept asleep for a full day when there is no need for it." Poppy said, glaring at Dumbledore and the others. "You've had guests though, pretty much the entire school. I'm sorry to say that it's no use hiding your face now, nearly everyone's seen your scars."

Harry narrowed his eyes. "Why? Is it normal to let students come in and gawk at the injured?"

Poppy just huffed, threw her arm up in the air, and glared at Harry's visitors.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr Potter, such a great pleasure." Fudge said, holding out a hand for Harry to shake. Harry, not being a fool, knew it was stupid to alienate someone in as powerful a position as Fudge was, even if it was common knowledge that he was heavily bribed.

"And a pleasure to meet you too, Minister." Harry inclined his head, shaking Fudge's hand. "May I ask why the head of the DMLE is here, accompanied by what I assume is... an Unspeakable?" Harry looked at the cloaked figure and tried to discern _something_ about them.

With his knowledge of illusions, he could pierce about three of the obscuration charms on the figure, enough to get an approximate height, and recognise if he had met the same unspeakable before, but that was it. He was rather interested in the illusion spells being employed to keep this person's identity secret.

"Amelia Bones, Mr Potter. I've heard about you from my niece, Susan, and I must say that has left me intrigued. This is Unspeakable Hound, they always use false names when out in the field, so even I can't tell you much more than that about him. I can tell you that he specialises in magical creatures, but that's about it." The monocle wearing woman said.

"Nice try, kid." The Unspeakable said in a cheery voice, not what he was expecting an Unspeakable to use. "You've managed to get past three of the charms, but our uniforms have over a hundred built into them. Don't think I've seen anyone below fourteen pierce more than one before though, so congrats all the same."

"Thank you." Harry said with a small smile. "Finding out that my wand specialises in illusions and healing meant that I have looked into both subjects with rather great interest. Would you be able to share any illusion spells with me, any at all?" Harry asked with an innocent voice.

The Unspeakable laughed. "I like you, kid. I might have a few suggestions of illusions and obscuration spells for you, but we'll save that for later. In fact, I'll have it on your pillow by Monday, sound good?" Harry inclined his head in thanks, before turning to the other three.

"Now, Mr Potter, it has come to our attention that there was some sort of incident just before midnight two days ago. Could you tell us what you know of said incident?" She asked, sitting down with parchment in front of her and a quill in her hand.

"Can I just ask if it's normal for the head of a department to do, what I believe is, grunt work? Also, why are the Minister, an Unspeakable and the Headmaster here? In fact, what alerted you to this incident in the first place?" Harry asked.

It was the Unspeakable who answered first. "We received word, and don't ask us where from, about an event that apparently had a unicorn turning into a human. That was strange enough to warrant an Unspeakable taking a look, and when we found out there was more to it, possibly an attack, the DMLE got involved."

Amelia nodded her head, before she shrugged. "All of my paperwork was done, and I could use this visit as an excuse to see my niece for a bit. The Minister is likely here because of you, Mr Potter. You are, shall we say, a person of interest to the Wizarding World?"

Harry nodded his head. He looked at the half of his hair covering his face for a moment, before he huffed and pulled it back into a low ponytail. Pomfrey handed him one of the bobbles he kept in his trouser pockets, seeing as he was currently dressed in a hospital gown, and Harry waited for the inevitable intake of breath at his heavily scarred appearance.

Thankfully, only the Minister really reacted to it. Madam Bones twitched a bit, but that was it, and the Unspeakable didn't react at all. Pomfrey and Dumbledore had both seen his scars before, so they knew what to expect, and this didn't react either.

"Can you tell us what happened?" Amelia asked, her quill over the parchment, waiting to take notes down.

Harry nodded his head and began. "Myself, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger and Neville Longbottom received detention. That detention was to take place at night in the Forbidden Forest. Apparently, unicorns have been attacked recently, and there signs of an injured one staggering about all over the place."

"Excuse me, but did I just hear that right? You received a detention that you had to serve in the Forbidden Forest?" Amelia asked, her eyebrow raised. "Just what did you do to warrant such a punishment?"

Harry shrugged and turned to Dumbledore. "Would you care to tell them, Headmaster? It's strange, but I received that detention and the loss of fifty points while I was in my bed in the Ravenclaw dormitory."

"It was Professor Mcgonagall that assigned those detentions and points losses." Dumbledore tried to deflect, but Harry was having none of it.

"Professor Mcgonagall deducted points and assigned detention to the other three for being out of bounds after curfew. She did _not_ assign the same to me, you did." Harry said.

"Albus?" Amelia asked. "Why did you see fit to assign such a large loss of points to someone, much less a detention? You did not say no when Mr Potter stated he received them while he was in his dormitory."

"The two Gryffindor students were using an artefact they could have only received from Mr Potter. They were also disillusioned, and the only person below fifth year that knows that charm is Mr Potter. Like he said, illusions is something he has taken an interest in. I assigned a punishment for assisting students break the rules, and made it all equal." Dumbledore explained.

"What artefact?" The Unspeakable asked, before turning back to Harry. "A disillusionment charm? Neat. I think that I'll have to put a more advanced list of illusions on your pillow if you're already capable of that much."

"The artefact was a high quality invisibility cloak that Harry inherited from his father. I'm sure you, Amelia, remember a few incidents when James was at school." Dumbledore said, and Madam Bones rolled her eyes.

"My cousin always did wonder how that pervert managed to sneak up on them." Madam Bones muttered, before shaking her head. "That's that, but I must ask, why the Forbidden Forest for a detention? There is a reason it is forbidden after all, and you sent four first years into there?"

"Hagrid was with them. Also, Harry's skill with Transfiguration did mean he took a number of animals in there with him." He winced and rubbed at his leg a moment. Harry caught a smirk on Pomfrey's lips and decided to ask about that later. As it would turn out, after the fight with Quirrelmort, Harry still had his two dragons, a panther, and seven eagles left that were still protecting Harry. Since Harry didn't like Dumbledore much at present, the animals had instinctively attacked him when he got close to Harry.

"Oh? What can you do with Transfiguration?" The Unspeakable asked, looking at Harry, who shrugged his shoulders before pointing his wand at his pillow. He levitated it onto the floor and, as rapidly as he could, transfigured it into everything he was capable of turning it into.

There were many different varieties of birds, small ones, large ones, brightly coloured ones and dull ones. Then he moved onto land-based creatures, from armadillos to skunks, snails, big cats, dogs, wolves, a baby hippo, and elephant. Then he moved onto the aquatic animals he knew, various fishes, squid, octopus, a jellyfish, dolphin, and barnacles. After that, he delved into the magical creatures he could make, small dragons, different winged horses (even if he needed to work on them a bit more), a small pony-sized acromantula, a gryphon, a chimera, a bow-truckle, and so many more.

"Huh. I see you have a fondness for inanimate to animate transfigurations, you must be pretty good at biology and have a more than decent mental focus." The Unspeakable muttered. "Nice variety, but have you ever tried to transfigure something that doesn't exist? That can be fun, one of the Unspeakables once unleashed this weird tentacle monster thing that he'd been reading about. The women in our department gave him a pretty rough time of it for ages after that happened, the damn thing seemed to have become resistant to magic." Harry raised an eyebrow in curiosity at that, the Department of Mysteries seemed to be even more of an interesting place than he had previously thought it would be.

"We've gotten off track." Madam Bones said. "Mr Potter, I think it would be best if we finished with your account of what happened, before we get distracted again." She might have pulled the conversation back on track, but even she was impressed with Harry's skill with Transfiguration, especially for a first year.

Harry nodded his head. "Very well." He said. "The four of us students, Hagrid, and Hagrid's boar hound, Fang, followed a trail of blood into the forest. We came to a fork in the path, blood going down both sides of it. Hagrid took Hermione, Neville, and Malfoy down one track. I took my transfigured creatures and Fang down the other path.

"What and how many creatures had you transfigured at the time?" Amelia asked.

"I had approximately two dozen eagles, twelve panthers and two dragons." Harry answered her. "Hagrid said that there wasn't anything in the forest that would be a threat if either he was with us, or Fang. I would like to say, as an aside, that what he said is most likely true to some extent. I know that Hagrid is well known amongst the forest dwellers, and generally welcomed." Harry told them.

Amelia waved at him to continue. "As I was heading down the track, I saw some strange pink orbs that came out of nowhere. Not knowing what they were or what they did, I avoided touching them, and kept going along the path. I eventually came to a clearing in which the unicorn lay dying."

"Can you tell us how you know the unicorn was dying?" Madam Bones asked, and Harry nodded.

"There were massive injuries along both of its sides, it's breathing was laboured and it was staggering around everywhere. It looked like it was on death's doorstep but refused to knock. It fell over and I rushed to its side. Having spent time in the Hospital Wing, learning Healing from Poppy Pomfrey, I knew a few spells that might help, and tried to close up all of the injuries I could and keep it alive." Harry stopped there and Pomfrey confirmed that Harry had indeed nearly completed a year of training with her.

"One of my transfigured panthers growled behind me, and I threw myself to one side. My creations had been directed to protect me, so something that they are growling at wasn't likely to be good for me. Fortunately, I managed to avoid the spell aimed at my back from possibly killing me. Unfortunately, it hit my right wrist and destroyed it rather viciously." Harry rolled his wrist around at that point, and Pomfrey brought out photos of the injury from Harry's medical file.

" I managed to roll over to my wand, grabbing it with my left hand, and casting 'Oppugno' at my attacker, forcing my transfigured creatures to attack them. I cast a few spells, the little that I knew, at my opponent to keep them occupied while I tried to heal the unicorn." Harry stated.

"Can you describe the attacker at all?" Surprisingly, it was Dumbledore that asked this question.

Harry nodded his head. "At first, I thought it was a dementor. All that could initially be seen was a large cloak draped over a human form. As I have only read about dementors, and not seen one, I think I can be forgiven for making that mistake. I then noticed that there was no aura of despair around the being, and remembered that it had cast a spell at me. Those things, and the human hand that peeked out of a sleeve, made me realise it was a wizard." Harry paused. "Unfortunately, I did not get a good look at the individual, so I could not describe his or her physical features."

"That's alright, let's just finish off with what happened next." Madam Bones said.

"There's not much more to say." Harry shrugged his shoulders. "There were loud noises coming from another part of the forest, which turned out to be Hagrid, the other three students and a centaur. The figure fled then, but not before we'd hit each other with a few more spells. I managed to get a few stabs in with a transfigured blade, and Madame Pomfrey can probably tell you better than I what injuries I received."

"And what happened to the unicorn?" The Unspeakable asked, looking very interested at this point.

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know." He said. "I remember putting my hands on the dying creature and desperately wishing it wouldn't die, that I could save its life. There was a bright light, and then I passed out. The next thing I know, I'm waking up in here."

"I see." The Unspeakable muttered. "Maybe it was a combination of accidental magic, the natural qualities all unicorns possess and the physical contact that facilitated the change. Hmm, interesting, very interesting." Harry looked up as he heard the curtain being pulled back from the bed next to him.

Laying on the bed, was what Harry knew was the unicorn, his familiar. She, for the unicorn was female, looked to be about twenty years old, maybe a little less, the same age as Reinforce appeared to be. Her hair was pure white, and there were a pair of horse-like ears on top of her head. She also, Harry knew, had a horse's tail as well. Her skin was a milky white colour, making her very beautiful.

Leaning over her, Harry looked into her face, and her eyes flickered open. Harry only had the chance to take in the startlingly bright blue eyes she had, before she had wrapped her arms around Harry and dragged him on to the bed with her. She seemed to be shaking him like mad, as she hugged him tightly.

"Master! Master! Master! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She cried. Harry wasn't sure if this was normal behaviour for familiar or not, but he was getting shaken around so much he was getting dizzy. He fell off the side of the bed and he heard some croaking above him.

Looking up, Harry spotted his raven, Loki, and an idea formed in his mind. "Oh, shut up, you damn bird. Would you have liked it if it happened to you?" With that, and now that Harry was out of sight of the adults on the other side of the bed, Harry unisoned with Reinforce.

Loki seemed to know what was going on, because he landed in front of Harry. The circle appeared once more, and a bright flash of light had the adults rushing to see what was going on, just out of their sight. They came around the bed to see Harry grinning at a man who was now knelt in front of him.

The kneeling man had black hair and green eyes, looking like he could be Harry's older brother or something. He seemed to be a few years older than the unicorn, maybe about twenty-four or twenty-five. He had a mischievous smirk on his face, as he knelt before Harry.

"Oh, master, how it pleases this one to speak with you at least." Loki then stood up, and the observers then took note of the two black wings on Loki's back. Both Loki and the unicorn girl then seemed to realise they had human forms, and began to examine themselves, moving their arms and legs, as if they were trying to figure out how they worked.

"Ah, hello there." Dumbledore said, examining the former raven with twinkling eyes. "Maybe you can give us an explanation for your... new appearance?"

Loki looked at the headmaster, before he grinned at him. It wasn't a friendly grin, it was one that promised that he'd regret messing with Loki if he ever put a single toe across the line. "A familiar knows what the master knows. I can only tell you what Harry knows about the change, so asking me is just like indirectly asking him."

Harry rolled his eyes at his familiar. Loki had not denied knowing anything about what had just happened, but he had implied it. Maybe this Loki would be like the one he was named after, a god of misdirection, and a trickster.

"I see." Dumbledore frowned, before attempting Legilimency on the former raven. He found, to his astonishment, that Loki already had Occlumency barriers around his mind, despite him being 'human' for no more than ten minutes. Loki narrowed his eyes at Dumbledore.

"I just told you." The raven familiar said. "The familiar knows what the master knows. Any spell that the master can cast, so can we, and that works both ways. That means that using Legilimency against me is just as ineffective as if you used it against Harry here."

Harry, who was now sat on the bed again, the unicorn woman sat behind him, wrapping her master in a tight hug, spoke up. "I know that it's going to be a bit of a grey area, classifying what sort of creatures these two now are, but I'd appreciate you not trying to use magic against those now bound to me."

Harry then looked at the Minister. "Minister, sir, do you think we could talk about that?" Fudge blinked, and then looked at Harry who had addressed him so politely.

"I think we can, my boy." Harry decided to ignore the 'my boy' comment, so as not to get on Fudge's bad side.

"Since unicorns are renowned light creatures, I don't think that classifying her as a dark creature, especially after such a miraculous change would be fitting. I am also aware that, now that they can think for themselves and not rely purely on instinct, they are also capable of doing bad things. In this case, could we classify them as neutral, like wizards and witches are?" Harry asked logically.

Fudge opened his mouth to answer, but he was cut off by the Unspeakable saying. "Oh, this is interesting."

They looked over at the Unspeakable who was looking closely at where Loki's heart was. "What is it?" Dumbledore asked.

"Huh? Oh, this?" The Unspeakable asked. "Well, as far as I can see, rather than having a magical core of his own, there is a... connection of sorts with Mr Potter's magical core. As far as I can tell, they should be capable of casting magic using his reserves through this link."

"Would they need a wand?" Amelia asked.

The Unspeakable was quiet for a few moments while he mulled the idea over in his head. "Not sure." He eventually replied. "I don't think she will." He indicated the unicorn woman. "Unicorn tail hairs are often used as wand cores for a reason, so she should be able to cast without a wand. The question is, how much did this guy get changed by the magic, and is he now magical enough to channel magic through his body without a wand to help him."

"Lumos." Loki said, his finger lighting up a bright green colour, the same as his eyes.

"Well, there's your answer." The Unspeakable said. "He can use magic without a wand. He's still using Mr Potter's reserves of mana, but his body is magical enough in nature that he doesn't need a wand." He seemed to examine Loki and the light for a moment longer, before he nodded. "Yep, I think I've got pretty much all I need to see here."

The Unspeakable then disappeared from view, melting into a shadow as if he was never there to begin with. Harry narrowed his eyes, his mind muttering 'That wasn't apparition', and wondering what sort of teleporting magic that was. He then caught on to what had actually happened and had to hold in a chuckle.

Pomfrey pushed him down onto a bed. "You are going to stay right here. We don't know what's causing you to cause things to happen, so I'm keeping you under observation for a few days, just to make sure nothing else funny happens." She then eyed Loki and the unicorn girl carefully. "Seeing as I don't know what would happen if I tried to separate you three, you two can stay as well, but don't be making a fuss, you hear me?"

The two familiars nodded their heads in sync. Harry made eye contact with Loki, and made sure the familiar knew what Harry was asking of him. Their bond might be brand new, but Loki hadn't lied when he said what the Master knew, the familiar knew as well, that included telepathy.

"Well, I think I will remain by my master's side if that is the case." Loki said. "Goodbye to you, Headmaster. Goodbye to you as well, Minister, and may your time in office be good to you." A suave smile then appeared on Loki's face as he bent and kissed the back of Amelia's hand. "Goodbye to you as well fair lady, may both beauty and competence ever be with you, as they are now."

Amelia chuckled. "Oh, stop it. An old widow like me should not be complimented so by a raven. You, sir, are dangerous and I'll be keeping an eye on you." She said, blushing slightly. She had of course felt it when Loki had slipped something into her pocket, but she'd play along with this to distract those watching so they didn't become aware of what had just happened.

xxxxx

"Well, that was most certainly interesting." Harry said, once he was alone with his familiars. He turned to the empty air next to his bed. "What do you think, Mr Unspeakable?" He addressed thin air.

"How did you notice me?" The Unspeakable asked, becoming visible by seemingly stepping out of a shadow.

"You used an illusion to hide, did you not? You made it look like you teleported through some means, but you didn't actually go anywhere. Is that another spell built into your uniform, or is it one you cast yourself?" Harry asked, not telling him that he'd detected his magical presence rather than actually seeing through the illusion.

"Smart kid." Harry could hear the smirk in the Unspeakable's voice. "The Department of Mysteries would be glad to have when you're older, if you're interested that is. Me and the others, those of us authorised to go on missions like this, use that trick to piss off all those who think they're all high and mighty. I know it ticks Albus off that we can 'apparate' through wards and he doesn't know how we're doing it."

"So, was there something you wanted?" Harry asked. "I'm guessing there is _some_ reason that you're still hanging around."

"Yeah, there is. Albus might need Legilimency or Veritaserum to see it, but you weren't telling us the whole truth, nor were you being completely honest, when you told us your story. You didn't alter the events, just your understanding of them." The Unspeakable stated.

"So what?" Harry asked. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Nothing." The Unspeakable told him cheerfully. "You're not a threat. Well, actually you _could_ be a threat, but you aren't planning on waging war or anything like that. We might ask you some questions if you do join us when you're older, but for now, you have nothing to worry about from the Unspeakables."

"You speak as if you have a lot of authority amongst your department." Harry said.

"Well, I should." The Unspeakable replied. "I am head of my department after all."

Harry's eyes widened for a moment, before they turned calculating. "Can you tell me what you know about the incident at Godric's Hollow that happened on the thirty-first of October Nineteen-Eighty?" Harry asked.

The Unspeakable tilted his head slightly. "I'm afraid I can't. Just like whatever you did here, that event is also a mystery. There are... inconsistencies that we really don't know what to do with, and we're still trying to work things out, but I don't really have anything I can tell you."

Harry took a breath. "Would it surprise you to know that the wills of James and Lily Potter haven't been read? Did you know that I am _not_ the heir of the Potter family?" The Unspeakable froze at that, understanding what Harry was saying without actually saying it out loud.

"Goblins always keep client confidentiality." The Unspeakable muttered. "They're also capable of keeping us out of their records. Damn, this thing just became a heck of a mess. Still, that might answer some of the questions and loose ends from the Halloween thing..." He looked up at Harry. "If I find anything, you won't be the first to know, but you _will_ be informed about this."

"Thanks." Harry said.

The Unspeakable chuckled. "Don't mention it. Heck, think of this as an incentive to join the Unspeakables yourself in a few years. We'll be keeping an eye on you." He said cheerily, before disappearing.

Harry blinked. "Damn, he's really gone this time, I can't feel his magical presence any more. That's impressive."

xxxxx

Back at the Ministry of Magic, inside her office, Madam Bones finally looked at whatever that Loki character had slipped into her pocket. It was a folded up note. Intrigued, she unfolded it, looking for the message that was written on it. When she did read it, her monocle fell out due to her eyes going wide with shock.

_Quirrel possessed by shade of Voldemort._

_Likely after Philosopher's Stone apparently being kept on third floor._

_That wasn't the first attempt by him made on Harry Potter's life._

_Solve the problem before we do it... permanently._


	18. Ministry Records

AN: Oh well, I guess naming for unicorn girl is over before it even began. I can't believed that I've just written three chapters in a row _AGAIN!_ I seriously need to find a job. Anyway, I think the next chapter, maybe the one after it, will be the end of this year. Don't worry, next year will be up before too long, and the adventures will continue!

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 18 – Ministry Records

"It's one thing to know it because you know it, but it's completely different to actually experience it yourself." A certain white-haired woman with a horse tail said as she walked down one of Hogwarts' corridors. She drew a number of looks to herself, and not just because of the already mentioned tail and her equine ears.

One thing that really drew attention to her was, well, was her clothes, or lack of might be a better way of saying it. Everything she wore was white, all of it. Even her underwear was white, and Harry knew that despite really wishing he didn't.

When she and Loki had first been turned into familiars, their more human forms had been dressed in versions of what Reinforce had worn when Harry had first met her. Loki's had been black pants and a tight t-shirt though, while the unicorn had been wearing a dress.

Now they had had a chance to dress how they wished, and they two were like night and day, in what they wore and the colours of what they wore. Loki had gone for a black trench coat with green designs on it. He wore smart army boots, black trousers, a black shirt with a silver raven on it, and a silver pendant, also in the form of a raven.

Isis, the name that the unicorn had chosen, had however gone for something different. Like Loki, she wore boots, but these weren't army boots. No, these were moulded to her legs and went above the knee, as well as having a small heel to them. They were white, of course, and definitely accentuated her amazing figure.

She wore short shorts, in white, obviously, which wasn't something really seen in the wizarding world. Her top, which was a small waistcoat of sorts, left her midriff exposed, and was also sleeveless. She wore white, fingerless gloves on her hands, and had a silver braid in her hair, just the one, that was in her fringe and fell to the right side of her face.

Now, due to how the wizarding world viewed clothing, all-concealing robes, this was a massive shock to the system. The fact that she also had her animal features on display caused more upset, and that she was walking beside the boy-who-lived only made her more of a source of gossip.

Of course, what was on most people's minds, was what she actually was. Everyone in the castle 'knew' about how Harry Potter had saved a unicorn's life and she, in her gratitude, had taken on human form and decided to serve her new master for eternity. Seeing this woman like this though, that was something else.

Loki, who was on Harry Potter's other side, was also part of the gossip. He was Harry Potter's raven who had also been turned into a human, the reasons here were not as definite as they were for the unicorn, and also served his master. The fact that he was rather handsome made him quite the juicy gossip topic amongst the older girls in school. The fact that his wings, the sign of his former animal nature, tended to be flat against his trench coat and harder to notice, didn't hurt things either.

The fact that both familiars could also cast magic, and do so _wandlessly_ was also widely discussed. It wasn't really a secret, because those two familiars went everywhere with Harry, to his lessons or anywhere, and did the assigned classwork while they were present.

Flitwick had been curious about them, and after setting the class off with practise work to revise for the exams the next week, he came over to talk to the three of them. He was mightily interested in how whatever spells Harry learned, they could perform, and vice versa as well. He wondered if all three of them were separated and learnt three different spells, whether they would all then be able to cast those spells as well as each of them could.

The answer was yes, they could. Flitwick said that could be a brilliant study aid, able to get through the work at three times the speed that someone could regularly go at. Harry had merely given him a mischievous smile and a muttered 'I know', which made the professor laugh.

Mcgonagall was also interested in them, especially when they proved capable of turning back into their original forms at will. She declared they were some sort of reverse Animagi, and wondered if Harry would prove himself capable doing a transformation himself.

She'd said not to attempt it, at least not yet, but she did mention that she'd observe his attempts next year as long as he got good results on his Transfiguration exam. The fact that she slipped him a book on the theory of becoming an animagus definitely implied that her curiosity had been aroused.

xxxxx

Harry's favourite times during the remainder of the week before the exams, was when he headed off to the Ancient Runes classroom for lunch. Septima and Beth both easily accepted Isis and Loki without difficulty. Heck, Loki and Septima flirted with each other, seeing if they could get the other to blush.

It was at those times that Isis' less than 'pure' nature made itself known. Harry had thought that some of the traits that creatures were known for would show when they became familiars. It turned out that either wizards had horribly misjudged unicorns, or Isis was simply the odd one of the bunch.

Seriously! The amount of innuendo that came out of her mouth was ridiculous. The suggestive ways she said that Harry take her for a 'ride', the way that she said she wouldn't mind being 'ridden' hard if he was up for a 'walk' through the forest, it was all rather too much for the eleven year old boy.

Of course, she was even worse when Reinforce was out and about. She would shamelessly flirt with Harry, and when Reinforce tried to say something about it, she would switch her attention to the unison device. That usually ended up with both Harry and Reinforce blushing and stuttering messes when Isis said that she could 'take two' if they really wanted it.

Anyway, back to lunchtimes with Septima and Beth. Now that they had multiple people who were capable of casting the spells Harry was showing them, as well as having the mana reserves to not be completely drained, Septima had them mock fighting against each other so she could see the spell formulae in action.

Of course, this didn't really go beyond one of them holding up a shield, either a Round Shield or Panzerschild didn't matter, and the other one using a shooting spell of some kind against it. Harry tended to favour either Photon Lancer or Bloody Daggers, with Panzerschild as his basic shield of choice.

It was experimenting like this that the three of them found what they were good at. Isis proved adept at healing magic and barriers, Loki excelled at stealth and manoeuvrability, while Harry was a 'commander' of sorts. While he could use other attacks, Harry tended to use transfiguration as his fall back, bringing forth a small army of critters to swarm his opponent, while supported them with binds and occasional long range shots.

None of them were particularly good fighters, they simply didn't have any experience or training, nor were any of them really specialised in up front fighting, but they did work well together. The three of them had even begun designing Barrier Jackets and the like, even if they would use a different spell for materialising it.

Harry wanted to use Combat Equipment, the same spell that Reinforce herself used, while Loki and Isis were thinking more along the lines of using Knight Armour. They all achieved the same purpose, that of personal protection, but their were slight differences between each one.

Harry was a bit irritated when both Loki and Isis were able to materialise Knight Armour without using a device, which Harry couldn't yet do, but just rolled his eyes at what they'd chosen for their designs. Isis' Knight Armour took the form of a white trench coat and her boots and gloves gained some armour, becoming slightly like gauntlets, while she got some protection on her shoulders and other vulnerable places too. Loki's Knight Armour was pretty much the same in appearance as his casual clothing, just reinforced with small 'scales' of armour instead of being purely fabric.

xxxxx

Amelia Bones was currently working overtime to try and work out what exactly was going on. The first thing on her to do list, was figuring out if Voldemort was actually dead or not. The goblins would know, if Voldemort truly was the Heir of Slytherin like he'd claimed, but since they had magically binding treaties that prevented them breaking client confidentiality, she couldn't get them to tell her.

She started where it had supposedly ended, Halloween Nineteen-Eighty One. She well remembered the celebrations that had been going on then, but how had people known that he was dead? She remembered being an auror at the time, and the order to bring in the 'remaining terrorists', which had been really easy since none of the ones left had really fought them.

Of course, given that only a handful of them actually ended up in Azkaban, it was little wonder that they hadn't fought it out. Amelia had been furious to see her husband's murderer plead Imperius and get off with a small fine, one that was seemingly paid right into Minister Bagnold's pocket.

Still, she was trying to track down _how_ news of Voldemort's demise had been spread throughout the Wizarding World. It was more than suspicious that, for someone who had supposedly died in the late evening of October thirty-first, celebrations of said death had broken out all around Britain by the early morning of November first.

"Even the Daily Prophet doesn't work that fast." Amelia had muttered under her breath, then stopped. The celebrations had broken out _before_ the Daily Prophet had even arrived that morning, which was _really_ suspicious. Why hadn't she thought about all of this at the time? Was it because she had just been another cog in the system, not a head of department?

There had been no body found at Godric's Hollow of Voldemort, nothing but an empty robe. Heck, even the wand had been missing, and where had that gone? Looking through the reports from that time, she had found that Voldemort's had not even been closed, just seemingly forgotten about! There was still an active bounty on the Dark Lord's head that remained unclaimed for Merlin's sake!

Amelia rubbed at her forehead, just knowing that this was going to be complicated. She briefly entertained the notion of bringing it to Fudge, and getting the whole thing out in the open, but dismissed that thought because she knew that wouldn't happen.

Fudge would declare the matter closed, suppress it and cause more problems than he would solve. Why was that idiot minister again? Oh, that's right, the dark aligned families found him easy to bribe and Dumbledore had supported him because the idiot asked for all sorts of advice from him, probable even on how to go to the toilet and other things.

Heck, she'd seen the 'brilliant' minister manipulated by an eleven year old boy just a few days ago. She knew that, if it hadn't been for Harry Potter's comments on the matter, the first person Fudge would have likely listened to was Lucius Malfoy who would probably have pushed for the former unicorn and raven to be executed.

Heck, it wouldn't have been too difficult to push for that. Whatever they were, they were in such a grey area as to not be funny. They could possibly be classified as experimental breeding, getting them killed that way, potentially dangerous to wizard-kind, getting them killed that way, or the result of a 'dark' ritual, also getting them killed.

She was no fool. She could tell, even if Fudge couldn't, that Harry Potter probably knew a lot more about how they had been turned into what they were than he had said he did. Unspeakable Hound would have noticed it as well, Dumbledore too.

Now that was food for thought, she'd gotten the impression that Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore were not on the best of terms. That was interesting, especially since the boy was viewed as Dumbledore's protégée and probable successor as 'leader of the light'.

Maybe she should invite Harry round her home some time this summer. Susan had a bit of a crush on him, one that seemingly hadn't disappeared when she'd met the real boy. While she had been at Hogwarts to see Mr Potter, she had spoken with her niece and asked her a few questions.

From what she'd heard, while not especially close to anyone, Harry Potter was on good terms with nearly everyone in his year, as well as a few from higher years. The only ones who he didn't really get along with were Draco Malfoy, Gregory Goyle and Vincent Crabbe. Well, more the former than the latter two, but they followed the blonde boy almost everywhere so it was more like a package deal.

Harry Potter was an intelligent Ravenclaw who was a friendly, if slightly secretive, individual. Rumour was that Harry had even managed to get on good terms, not student teacher ones, with a few of the professors. Septima Vector, Bathsheda Babbling and Poppy Pomfrey, were the three staff members he had 'befriended' apparently.

She'd seen the fondness Poppy had shown him when she'd seen him in the Hospital Wing, so that one was semi-confirmed. The fact that Harry had done a year of Healing with Pomfrey, something usually done by sixth and seventh years who want to be Healers or Medi-Wizards/Witches was something to take note of.

"Hey, Amelia." The head of the DMLE span around, drawing her wand at the unexpected voice. She paused when she saw who it was, an Unspeakable in uniform.

"Hound?" She guessed, wondering if it was the same one that had met up with Harry Potter.

"The very same." She could hear the grin in his voice. "I've been looking with our own resources, but does the DMLE have any sort of report on the deaths of Lily and James Potter?"

Amelia raised an eyebrow, before wandering out of the section she was currently in, taking two rights and a left, and heading into the room. Looking up P for Potter, she retrieved the files and took them to a nearby table to lay everything out on.

She spread the files of Lily and James Potter on the table, taking a seat herself to see if she could find anything suspicious about these reports the Unspeakable wanted to look at. She found nothing in her initial look over, but something was bugging her, and then her eyes caught it.

"Magic levels at death: trace." She said, reading that part of the report twice to make sure she'd read it right. "I know that a witches or wizards body loses its magic when they die, but this says that they died without magic. Magical Exhaustion would account for that, I suppose..."

Hound then spoke up. "Yes, but there are some things that don't make sense. It is widely believed that James Potter duelled the Dark Lord so his wife and child could have time to escape, but there were no wands retrieved from the house. James Potter's wand is missing, same for his wife's, and even the same for the Dark Lord's."

"That is suspicious. I remember this case, I was a senior auror at the time, only just though, and that had been the first big thing I'd been attached to. I remember there being a lot of magic in the air, a heck of a lot of it. Something big happened, but what?" Amelia wondered aloud.

"Harry also told me something after everyone else left." Amelia raised an eyebrow at the Unspeakable who scratched the back of his head with a gloved hand. "I had a few questions for him so I hid rather than left. Anyway, he told me two things. One was that neither of the wills his parents' wills have been enacted. The other was that he wasn't the heir of the Potter family."

"That would only be the case if his parents... weren't dead, and if he had an older male sibling." Amelia sat back in her chair and thought back to that time a decade previous. "James Potter was a new auror back then, just a child that had been rushed through the program because we needed more people. He left and nothing was heard about him after that until Halloween Nineteen-Eighty One. I thought he'd given up on the auror force and was working for Dumbledore's order of the roasted chicken."

"The Order of the Phoenix? Yes, we have evidence he worked for that vigilante group. The only things of him I can really find are three times when he and Lily Potter responded to Death Eater attacks that the Dark Lord personally lead. They were lucky, and survived each time. Well, I've found something else while I have been wandering through my department looking for information." He told her. At Amelia's look, he shrugged. "There's a prophecy orb, one given to Dumbledore, or someone with the same initials, by Sybil Trelawney. Interestingly, the date on that orb coincides with the day that James Potter dropped out of the auror force."

"_Really?_" The distaste was evident in Amelia's tone of voice.

Hound nodded his head. "Interestingly enough, that orb is also labelled with two other names, well, one name and a title. Would you care to take a guess as to what those are?"

Amelia shook her head. "No, I can guess." She looked at the Unspeakable for a long moment, before summoning a certain note to herself and handing it to him. Despite the hood and obscuration charms, Amelia could practically feel the raised eyebrow directed her way.

Unspeakable Hound read the note then gave a low whistle. "Whoever gave you this ain't messing around, are they?" He murmured the 'permanently' part of the note under his breath. "Is this why the head of the DMLE is riffling through old records when she's supposed to be finished for the day?"

Amelia nodded. "A few things have come to light." She said tiredly. "It's suspicious how quickly everyone learned about the Dark Lord's demise. Heck, it spread faster than the Daily Prophet did, and that's weird in and of itself. The file was also never closed, just forgotten about."

"Our dear minister would bury this, bury it deep, which would help no one. What have you got planned?" The Unspeakable clicked his tongue in annoyance.

Amelia shrugged her shoulders before slumping forwards over the table. "I really don't know." She said. "I can't really move in without proof, especially with the way Dumbledore lords over 'his' castle. I have no real leads to go off, just conjecture. Honestly? I'm sort of tempted to let them do this, then try and get some evidence I can use out of it."

"I'm sorry to say that the Unspeakables don't really have anything on the Dark Lord ourselves. He's an enigma, heck, we don't even know what his real name is. We've got nothing to go off, but, if he really is still alive, then we might have some leads. There are ways to 'endure' after a physical death, but that's not my speciality, so I wouldn't know what I'd be looking into." Hound shrugged.

"So it's a 'wait and see' thing, is it?" Amelia asked. "I'll send a note back to the one who gave me this. I believe that they're telling the truth and I will give them an 'unofficial' go ahead as it were, I can't condone the killing of a professor in my capacity as head of the DMLE after all."

xxxxx

After his last exam of the day, Harry was relaxing out by the lake. He was leafing through his 'Tome of Shadows' as he was currently calling it. It was a traditional 'Witchcraft' thing, a 'book' of shadows that was, one that wizards and witches used to do ages ago. Theirs, however, were more of a mix of journal, diary, and collection of things they learned and experimented with.

Labelling it his own book like that, meant that people could actually get into legal trouble for trying to get into it without his permission, which was awesome. The fact that he'd been researching seals and wards with which to further protect it was just extra security.

There were so many different ways to protect something though, it was frankly amazing. The blood seal he'd put on it, while simple, was also a fairly good protection. Just like all other protections, it could be broken by someone who knew what they were doing, but it was better than a purely magical means of protecting it, like an identification array for example, those were really easy to fool.

Beside Harry, having had Harry learn a transfiguration spell for a deck-chair, Isis was sunbathing in near nakedness that had Harry firmly not looking in her direction. Loki wasn't with them at present, he had something to do 'elsewhere' he had said, but Harry and Isis knew what it was.

Loki had taken his speciality in stealth a step further than Harry had expected him to, and had designated himself as an information gatherer for Harry. Having looked into eavesdropping charms and the like, Loki was sneaking into as many dormitories and common rooms as he could and planting magical listening devices in them.

Harry viewed his actions with exasperated amusement, and just let him get on with it. It would be better if he could put some of those listening charms in the professors' quarters, but they were far more likely to notice such things than students were. Harry was just glad that he had the sorting hat on his side, that was even still awarding him points for pranks he'd been pulling, and even helping him on occasion.

They'd tried to get a few members of staff with pranks, primarily Dumbledore and Snape. They had succeeded against Dumbledore once and Snape twice. For Dumbledore, Harry had used Reinforce's wings to fly up to the Headmaster's Tower and climb through a window, a window that the hat had convinced Fawkes to open.

He didn't use a ritual this time, and make it obvious he was the one responsible, nor did he use an illusion. He'd used a potion this time, brewed from a recipe under the strict guidance of the sorting hat. Said potion had made the Headmaster break dance in the middle of the Great Hall at breakfast, aided by a 'Cantus' charm Harry had cast when the trigger had been set off, to provide the background music.

As for the two pranks they'd managed to get against Snape, those had been far more difficult than the ones against Dumbledore. Being down in the dungeons, Snape did not have a convenient window they could slip through to avoid his defences.

Once again, Fawkes lent a hand getting them in. Harry was beginning to think that the fiery bird was a prankster at heart, but he put up a token resistance to appear more mature or something. Anyway, Fawkes got them in there with his teleporting fire thing that Reinforce really wanted to steal, and then they'd set about setting up the pranks.

They'd switched his robes out for bright pink ones that would resist colour-changing charms, transfiguration and illusions for one of the two pranks. For the other one, they switched his wand out for a stick transfigured to look the same as his own so he had to write the instructions on the board by hand instead of just flicking his wand at it.

There were reasons for the pranks, they weren't done just because they could do them. Dumbledore's was a little bit of revenge for the manipulations he was trying with Harry. If Dumbledore tried it again next year, he would scale them up until he made sure Dumbledore got the message.

Snape's pranks were for a different reason. You see, since the entire school pretty much had been by to gawk at him while he was in the Hospital Wing, everyone now knew how scarred he was, and he no longer hid it. Snape had made some rather snide, direct, and totally rude comments about it and how he deserved it. Harry wasn't entirely sure how that worked, Snape said it was something to do with him being a Potter, but didn't elaborate.

The second prank against Snape was revenge for purposefully failing him in class. It seriously pissed Harry off that the potion he had spent an hour and a half getting just right ended up spilt all over the floor. Having spent so much time with Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing, Harry had a certain amount of appreciation for healing potions, and that had been a damn fine basic nutrient potion!

"What's going on over there?" Isis asked, sitting up in her deck-chair. That, at least, drew Harry's attention to whatever she was looking at. It turned out to be a very stressed looking Hermione Granger, a determine Ron Weasley, an out-of-sorts Seamus Finnegan and Hagrid.

"Who cares?" Harry said, flopping down and going back to his Tome. "It's none of my business, and I really don't want to involve myself in their affairs. If they bring it to me, then fair enough, I'll lend them an ear, but if that doesn't happen, then I'm not going to get involved."

A shadow appeared above Harry, who looked up to see who it was. That was all the warning he got before Isis grabbed him into a tight hug and started squeezing the life out of him. "Aww, look at you being all authoritative and cute." She was saying while Harry gasped for breath and struggled to get free.

Struggling didn't really help him, all it did was cause the two of them to end up in the lake with a large splash. Harry was really thankful that he'd charmed his Tome to resist damage, tearing, water damage, even mild acids. It wasn't indestructible, not by a long shot, but you would actually have to be trying pretty hard to damage it to do anything to it.

When the two of them got out of the water, it was to find Loki chuckling at them. Harry just glared at the raven familiar, who simply laughed harder at them. It didn't help matters that Isis was trying to get him to look at her in her now wet and see-through clothes. Harry transfigured a nearby rock into a copper washbasin, levitated it over her head and let it drop.

All three of them stopped what they were doing when an owl swooped down and dropped a note towards Loki, who caught it, opened it, and then raised an eyebrow at the note. Looking at Isis' and Harry's curious looks, he read it out loud.

_To the raven-haired flirt_

_There is currently not enough evidence for me to act as I would wish._

_Officially, my hands are tied and I am personally unable to do anything, as are those under my command._

_It is truly a shame that no officials can carry out justice on someone who does not have a closed file._

_I wish you all the best and would like you to remain out of trouble._

_Friend of Mr H_

"Friend of Mr H?" Harry muttered. "Wasn't that Unspeakable's false name 'Hound'?"

Loki nodded. "It looks as if we have been given the go ahead to take out a certain Dark Lord's host. As long as the DMLE doesn't catch wind of this, in other words: don't be too blatantly obvious, we're being given permission to kill a professor at Hogwarts."

"Better not put this off then. Tonight?" Harry asked, looking at his companions.

Both of them nodded, completely serious for a change. "Tonight." The replied.

xxxxx

Later that night, Harry, Isis and Loki were sneaking through the corridors and towards Quirrel's quarters. Having learned his mistake after last time, Harry was already unisoned with Reinforce. Isis and Loki were both in their Knight Armour and had weapons in one hand.

Both of their weapons had been transfigured by Harry, a pair of short swords for Loki and a lance for Isis. Harry had his wand in one hand, and a Bloody Dagger already cast and held in the other. Harry was wearing a hooded trench coat that had some obscuring charms on it.

He'd learnt two new ones off of the Unspeakable's list, which was left on his pillow the following Monday, not setting off any of the alarms he'd put on his bed. He also disillusioned all three of them, they were all keeping track of each other by their magical presence, rather than sight, using telepathy to avoid speaking and making noise.

Harry had also taken a marker and scrawled as many concealing runes as he knew on the inside of his trench coat. Hardly a long term solution, but hopefully it would last for as long as it was necessary. All three of them, though none said it, were nervous about what they were about to do.

When they got to Quirrel's room, they were surprised that there were no wards or traps around it. This immediately set alarm bells ringing in Harry's and Loki's minds. They weren't going to drop their guard and rush in though, so Loki took on his raven form and hopped out of a nearby window.

The raven circled around until he found the room in question, and took a look through the window. He telepathically told the other two that the door didn't appear trapped physically on the other side, and there was no sign of Quirrel. He watched as Isis and Harry entered the room and searched around, finding no sign of Quirrel apart from all of his stuff.

Loki then heard something over one of the listening charms he'd planted and telepathically conveyed what he was hearing to Harry and Isis. Harry swore under his breath and dived out of the window, his black-winged flight spell taking hold before he fell, as he made his way off to Gryffindor tower.

When he entered the common room, he saw Neville on the ground, petrified. Harry cast the counter-curse and helped a shaky Neville to his feet. He patted the boy's back as the round-faced and slightly pudgy boy managed to croak out an explanation.

"They've gone after the Stone. Seamus, Ron and Hermione, they think Snape's trying to steal the Stone. I tried to stop them, say that Snape wouldn't do that, as bad as he is in class, but they didn't listen. Please, Harry, make sure they're safe. You're strong and you have Loki, and Isis!" Neville told him.

"Don't worry, I will." Harry swore, throwing himself out of the window again, having never dropped his flight spell, and made directly for the third floor corridor. Damn it, this was stupid, if only he'd gotten that note one single night ago, if only Quirrel wasn't seemingly attacking tonight. Damn it!

Harry met up with Isis and Loki outside the door to the room that held the cerberus that Hagrid had named Fluffy. He took a deep breath, looked at his two companions, and headed through the already partially open door.


	19. End of the Year

AN: Here's the last chapter of first year. I hope it agrees with you all, and brings a nice little bit of closure to Harry's first set of 'adventures' at Hogwarts. I have some things planned for the summer that I hope you will enjoy and this is, well, all for now! Oh, some people have been asking about Harry and Transfiguration. Yes, it is Harry's worst subject but, no, he is not bad at it. Transfiguration is the most illogical branch of magic to Harry, but it is also very useful and a subject he has put a lot of effort into, making him _look_ rather skilled at it.

Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN

Chapter 19 – End of the Year

Loki handed Harry his flute, the one that Hagrid had given him for Christmas, and he was already playing it as he pushed the door open with his foot. The Cerberus inside the room started to droop its heads as soon as Harry began playing, even if he wasn't particularly good at it due to only having started to learn about a half year ago.

Harry's eyes flickered to a harp that was set up near the wall. That was probably Quirrelmort's doing, charming it to play by itself or something like that. It didn't matter right then, they needed to catch up to the Gryffindors that had gone after what they believed to be Snape trying to steal the Stone.

Isis and Loki dragged Fluffy off of the trapdoor, the former complaining about the dog's bad breath being multiplied by three while Loki laughed at her. It didn't take long for the two of them to move the three-headed dog and lift up the trapdoor and take a look inside.

It was dark, very dark, and they couldn't really see the bottom clearly. They decided to activate their flight spells and descend slowly. Harry had his many black-winged flight spell that Reinforce had taught him. Loki had his two wings that retained from his raven form, and Isis had a pair of white wings on her waist, knees and ankles.

The three of them jumped, one after the other, and Harry stopped playing the flute when they'd gone down a little way and were out of Fluffy's reach. Harry spoke up. "Alright, you two, we've only got a short time to do this in. There was a ward over the trapdoor that the ones who went before us set off. I blasted it with a Bind Break, which somehow managed to destroy it, so no one knows _who_ is on the way, but they might now the ward was destroyed. We get in, we make sure the Gryffindors aren't in immediate danger, we teleport out. Do you hear and understand me? I do not want us to be discovered here."

"Understood." Loki acknowledged him.

"I hear you." Isis recognised the command as well. "Let's go."

A 'Lumos' charm showed a plant below them. As with most plants, it retreated away from fire. Harry didn't bother getting a closer look and trying to identify it once they were past it, it wasn't important. He ran along a corridor with Isis and Loki at his sides, his senses straining to discover what lay ahead.

"Keys?" He asked, once the three of them had arrived. Harry hurried across the room and tried to open the door. "Damn, the door is charmed damn near unbreakable, and I don't want to use heavy ordinance indoors, who knows what could happen. We need a specific key, take a look and see if anything looks appropriate."

"I see it." Isis said after a while. "Up there, it looks rather crumpled. It matches the lock as well, so it's probably the right one." Harry looked up at it.

"Chain Bind." He called out, entangling the key, and several others, with magical chains that he began to pull towards himself. Unfortunately, the keys decided that he was now a very good target and tried to target him. Only Loki and Isis protecting him with Round Shields and shooting keys out of the air with either Shoot Barrett or Feather Shot, the latter being Loki's own creation.

Once Harry had the key struggling in his grasp, he dashed over to the door, shoved it in, turned it, and then threw the door open. The next room seemed to be a giant chess set, and over at the side Ronald Weasley looked to be knocked unconscious.

Harry went to rush over, to make sure the redhead wasn't too seriously injured, but he was almost impaled by a pawn that shoved a sword into his path. Harry looked around, saw how large the room was, and made a decision. "Let's hope this works." He muttered, before shouting at Loki and Isis to stand back.

"Diabolic Emission!" He called out. Now, Reinforce _was _a Device, specifically a Unison Device, and so she was capable of the computational abilities all devices were able to do. She was not, however, designed to be used as a common Storage Device, but in conjunction with one.

The spell worked though, the large area of effect spell destroyed all of the pieces, but Harry received a lancing pain through his head because he didn't have a Storage Device or the like to act as a crutch, especially since Diabolic Emission was an S- ranked spell.

By the time, Harry arrived at Ron Weasley's side, Isis was already there. "He's okay." She told him, before Harry had a chance to throw off any diagnostic charms. "He's unconscious and took a rather nasty blow to the head, but it's not fatal, but it will leave him one hell of a shiner and a massive headache when he does come around.

The next chamber contained a dead troll. The difference between this one and the one Harry had faced on Halloween, was that this one was a fair bit larger, and its club looked a lot more lethal. Well, that and the smell was many times worse, so bad that Harry's eyes watered and Loki didn't even smirk at Isis when she complained bout the stench.

They heard muttering from the next room, so all three of them went to 'stealth mode'. Harry disillusioned himself again, making sure that particular spell was as strong as he could make it. Loki damn near disappeared, he was that good with stealth spells, and he was learning to cast some more advanced illusion spells. Isis needed Harry to disillusion her, she was rather bad at stealth spells after all.

They were almost into the next room when they found their path blocked by a strangely coloured fire. All three of them could tell that there was magic in the fire, some strange magic at that, so the didn't want to touch it. Instead, Harry searched his Tome of Shadows for an ice or water spell of some sort.

He found one, a Mid-Childan spell, one that had come from a Mage with an Ice mana Conversion Affinity. It was an area of effect spell of rank C, so it shouldn't be too powerful or over the top. He looked at the spell formula and tried to memorise it as quickly as he could, before casting the spell.

"Frost Shot." Harry said, casting the modified shooting spell at the fire. It was sloppily done, but it fortunately worked. Harry felt the magic in the fire dim ever so slightly, so he poured more power into his next volley of Frost Shots, and another and another, until the fire was out.

This didn't go unnoticed by the occupants of the room though. Hermione, who was looking at something on a bit of Parchment didn't seem to know what to make of invisible people overcoming obviously magical fire, and she remained stunned as an invisible Loki conked her over the head with the hilt of one of his short swords. Isis got Finnegan with the butt of her lance.

Harry took a look at whatever it was that had kept Hermione's attention. "A riddle? Seriously? Potions... I wouldn't trust Snape not to have filled every bottle with a poison, or at least a paralytic or sleeping potion. Loki, make it look like Granger slipped and knocked herself out on the edge of the table, maybe make use of the ice."

"Yes, sir." Loki said, and began to do just that.

Harry began to use Frost Shot on the next fire, and when he'd managed it, he took Finnegan through where said fire had been, before Harry had erased it. He set the boy down once they were past the flames and part way down the corridor, carrying on with Isis and Loki at his shoulders.

The three of them were still in 'Stealth Mode', so when they entered the next room, Quirrelmort didn't seem to notice them. That suited the three just fine as they invisibly spread out around Quirrelmort and prepared to kill him in a three way blast of spells.

"Photon Lancer!/Shoot Barrett!/Feather Shot!" The three called out simultaneously.

Unfortunately, verbalising their spells gave Quirrelmort a little bit of warning. He used this warning to dive aside and erect the same shield he'd used in the Forbidden Forest. "Well, well, Potter. I guess I should have-" He was cut off as Harry launched a number of Bloody Daggers at him.

Quirrelmort conjured a stone wall which was destroyed by Harry's Bloody Daggers, but slowed down enough that he could get out of the way. Another magical shield stopped Loki's Feather Shots dead in the air, but Isis' Shoot Barrett managed to clip his side before he stopped that too.

Harry saw a silvery coloured liquid drip from Quirrelmort's side before it regenerated. "Unicorn blood!" He swore, remembering the great regenerative effects that substance had for those that drink it. Of course, Isis was incredibly infuriated by what he'd done and launched herself at Quirrelmort, swinging her lance down towards him.

Quirrelmort only just managed to dodge what would have been a fatal blow, even with unicorn blood inside of him, but she still took a chunk out of his shoulder before that also regenerated. Quirrelmort banished her backwards wandlessly, tying her up in ropes with another wandless spell, and 'Incarcerous' this time.

Harry went to assist Isis, but he had to dodge to the side to avoid a sickly yellow looking curse that Quirrelmort threw at him. "Interesting substance, unicorn blood." Quirrelmort said casually. "It weakens magic, so much so that the Unforgivables become impossible to cast, but it does grant the drinker the ability to forego a wand when casting spells."

Harry ignored him, and focused on how to bring him down. There were three ways to do so, as far as he could see. First, do enough damage that the unicorn blood simply can't keep up. Second, do an instantly lethal attack that will kill him before he can recover, a decapitation for example. Third, find a way to negate the regeneration of the unicorn blood.

The last one, Harry had no idea how to achieve. That left the first too. Harry would try and bind him first, but he needed to take Quirrelmort by surprise, give him no chance to break out of the bind, and then take care of him. Well, this sounded like something Loki would be good at, so why not make it a two pronged attack?

"Photon Lancer, Genocide Shift." Harry said. Now, because of the unison with Reinforce, he could bring forth many more orbs of magic than he could alone. Over a hundred orbs appeared, then they began to pelt Quirrelmort. Loki saw Harry keeping Quirrelmort occupied, received the mental message, and used the opportunity to free Isis.

Harry just kept bringing forth more and more spheres of magic. Quirrelmort kept recasting his shields again and again, neither of them yet at the point of wearying. Harry was not currently trying kill Quirrelmort though, merely distract him. He switched to swarm after swarm of Bloody Daggers, to make it not too obvious, while Loki and Isis acted behind Quirrelmort's back.

A growl was the first thing Quirrelmort knew of what was going on behind him. He conjured three walls of stone to step Potter's flying daggers for a moment, while he assessed the situation, and came face to face with a panther. He also saw that he had forgotten about the raven freak, a big mistake.

After freeing Isis, the two familiars had begun to transfigure everything around them into, what Harry would call, 'critters'. While not as good at Transfiguration as Harry, the both of them managed to turn chunks of debris into more than passable creatures, from big cats to dogs to other things.

They had managed to make almost eighty before one of them had growled and given the game away. As soon as that one gave it away, the pair of them cast 'Oppugno' at Quirrelmort, having all of the transfigured creations attack the possessed Professor. It was also at about this time that Harry's Bloody Daggers tore through the last wall between him and the possessed man.

Quirrelmort managed to get out two words... well, more like one and a half, and for some strange reason there was an odd quality to it, almost like a second, muffled voice was saying the same thing. Those words were:

"Oh, fu-"

And then he was promptly torn apart by a horde of transfigured 'critters', a swarm of Bloody Daggers, and a volley each of Shoot Barretts and Feather Shots. Suffice to say, there wasn't much left of him afterwards, and not even unicorn blood would be able to regenerate those extensive wounds.

Harry lit the body in fire with an 'Incendio' and, as it burned, he dragged the unconscious Seamus Finnegan into the room and laid him out next Quirrelmort. A few cuts, bruises and a bit of burn damage, and Wizards would believe that dear Seamus had fought and defeated the evil teacher.

"Time to go." Harry told his familiars, waited for them to get close to him and then said. "Dimensional Transfer."

xxxxx

The next day, Harry visited the three Gryffindors in the Hospital Wing. At breakfast that morning, Dumbledore had told the school population that three very brave students, he didn't say any names but everyone knew who he was talking about, had protected a protected item on the third floor from a thief that sought to steal it. Also, in completely unrelated news, Quirrel had decided to resign and there would be no more Defence Against the Dark Arts lessons that year.

Personally, Harry was just glad that he'd gotten Neville to keep quiet about his involvement of the whole thing.

Anyway, he was here visiting the three in the Hospital Wing. Seamus was being looked over for any signs of damage further than the superficial, Hermione was in as a 'just in case' apparently, and Ron Weasley was legitimately in there for injuries, having been quite severely injured by those damnable chess pieces.

"Why hello there, saviours of our dear school." Harry said, looking at the three of them. He frowned, noticing that the bruise balm on the table next to Weasley was empty. He went and replaced it with a fresh pot, Hermione glaring at him the entire time.

"What do you mean by 'saviours of our dear school'?" She asked him.

Harry pretended to be surprised. "What do I mean? You three are getting a little famous around the castle. Apparently, you three stopped a thief from taking what was on the third floor. How can you not know about that?"

Hermione looked embarrassed, but the two boys swelled with pride at the title 'saviour', even if it wasn't actually true. Harry gave them all a curious look, before focusing on Hermione. "So, what made you decide to go down the third floor in the first place?"

She looked a little guiltily at the floor, before raising her head to meet Harry's eyes. "Well, we managed to get it out of Hagrid that he did sort of tell that guy who gave him the dragon egg how to get past fluffy. After that, we tried to tell Professor Mcgonagall about the possibility of the Stone being stolen, but she didn't believe us."

Seamus took up the story next. "Then we asked to see Professor Dumbledore, but apparently he was out of the school until the next day. We kind of thought this was really suspicious. You see, Ron overheard Quirrel getting threatened by someone and agreeing to do something. We thought that Snape had finally found out about all of the protections on the stone."

"You almost got it exactly right, Harry." Hermione said. "There was a Devil's Snare missing from the greenhouses, Neville found that out. You were the one who got Hagrid to talk about music and the Cerberus, Flitwick animated keys, Mcgonagall used chess, there was a troll, and Professor Snape must have left the riddle and potions."

"I got taken out by the chess set, but at least I got these two safely through." Ronald Weasley beamed proudly about his achievement.

"Me and Hermione got to the potions challenge, but then things get a bit muddled. Hermione says that she remembers the fire freezing over and then something coming at her. Madam Pomfrey says she hit her head, and it was apparently on the table that held the potions. When I woke up, I was in this room with a mirror and a burned up body next to me. I felt a bit weak and I was covered in cuts and bruises. Madam Pomfrey said they were all pretty much superficial and that I was really lucky." Seamus shook his head.

"I see." Harry said. "That's incredibly suspicious. Did Madam Pomfrey check you over to see if you'd been obliviated? Had your memories wiped?" Harry rephrased the question at Hermione's confused look. "It's supposed to be a really easy spell, but also very easily abused too."

"I looked them over for everything, even mind wipes, thank you very much." Pomfrey said, walking towards them. "Now, I'm only going to let you stay in here because I've been putting up with you since Christmas and you know your way around. Don't make me regret that choice." She gave Harry a stern look.

"Thanks, Poppy." Harry said to the healer, knowing she was only putting a stern façade. "I replaced Weasley's bruise balm, the jar had ran out, so that's why there's one less in the cupboard." He told her, jerking his thumb at the tub on the table next to Ronald Weasley.

Pomfrey just walked off, muttering darkly under her breath about students that can't even be properly intimidated any more. Harry just grinned at he retreating back, before turning back to the three students on the beds. "So why didn't you ask me to come as well? Hermione at least knows where the common room is."

Ron and Seamus broke out into twin grins and began to chuckle under their breath while Hermione's cheeks turned a dark pink from embarrassment. "What? What is it?" Harry asked, completely in the dark about what was so funny.

"Hermione couldn't get into the common room, she couldn't work out the riddle." Seamus said, between sniggers. Harry just shook his head and placed one hand on Hermione's shoulder. She looked up at him with wide, doe-like innocent eyes that had the hint of tears sparkling at their corners.

"Don't worry about it, not everyone is as perfect as I am." Harry said with a grin.

"Prat." Hermione muttered as she walked him over the head, much to the amusement of Ron, Seamus, Loki and Isis.

"So what are you doing for the holidays?" Hermione asked, looking at Isis and Loki. "Those two can't exactly hide too easily in the muggle world, and don't you live with an aunt and uncle there?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I'll only be there a week, there are special wards up that need recharging every year. After that, I'll be out of contact until about a week or so before school begins. I'm going to set up a drop box at the Owl Office on Diagon Alley for any mail I might receive."

"Won't you need your guardians permission at least to travel? Is your aunt really going to just let you go off with people she's never met just because they're your familiars?" Hermione asked, biting the inside of her cheek as she thought about it.

Harry laughed and indicated the left side of his face. "My cousin did this, but it was obviously all my fault for provoking him. Dear little Dudders would never have done something like that on purpose, it was all the freak." Harry rolled his eyes. "She'd be glad to see the back of me. Anyway, her opinion doesn't actually matter, dear Petunia isn't my guardian after all."

"Where are you going to go?" Seamus asked, a little confused. "There are ways to send mail to other countries, I know there is."

Harry leaned in close and whispered to them. "That, my dear little Gryffindors, is a secret." He leaned back away from them and laughed at the annoyed expression on Hermione's face, Seamus' shaking head and Ron's snort.

"See you all later." Harry called over his shoulder as he left the Hospital Wing, being flanked by his two familiars.

xxxxx

"Hello, Headmaster." Harry said in a flat voice. "Now, as it is the end of the year, I really don't see the reason for us meeting like this. I can't be being punished, because I haven't done anything wrong, and even if I had, it is too late now to punish me for it. So, why am I here?"

"Ah, it is about your living arrangements over the summer." Dumbledore said. "I contacted your aunt, to explain your... friends there, but she said she'd already received a letter off of you."

"That is no concern of yours, headmaster, though I do... thank you, for trying to explain what could have otherwise been a sticky situation." Harry was dancing with his words here, because he wasn't at all sure how Dumbledore would have tried to explain Isis and Loki, or what sort of spin he might have put on it.

"Oh, that's no problem, my dear boy. No, what has me concerned is that your aunt said that you are only intending to stay for a single week before leaving. She didn't tell me where you intended to go, and apparently you didn't tell her yourself." Dumbledore's question was obvious.

"Where I stay during the holidays is outside your jurisdiction as headmaster, professor, though once again, I... thank you for the concern." Harry's purposeful pause at the thank you part again was a massive slap in the face there, politics may not be something Harry likes, but he _can_ play the game a little bit.

"Why aren't you staying with your aunt, Harry, and what are we supposed to do about mail? I mean, how do you expect to get your supplies list for next year if we can't reach you?" The headmaster asked.

"I am only staying with Petunia Dursley and her family for a week because that will be enough time to recharge the wards there. She is not my aunt, no matter what ties of blood we may have with each other, and nor is her family or home my own, merely a place that I reside in on occasion." Harry said, but then he stopped.

Dumbledore's complexion paled and took on the colour of old and mouldy porridge. One of the odd silver devices in the room gave off a sound like metal being put under immense stress and then shattered into colourful pieces. Dumbledore stood up, rushed over to it and started muttering. "No, no, no,no, no!" Under his breath repeatedly.

"What just happened, Headmaster, and why do I think this is going to affect my living arrangements this summer?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore turned to him with a solemn expression on his face. "My dear boy, you don't know what you have done. When your mother sacrificed her life for you, I managed to forge it into some incredibly strong wards that would keep you safe. Like all wards though, there was a condition, you had to live with someone who shared your mother's blood. The protection was supposed to last until you turned seventeen and became an adult, but you vocally stating her home is not your own and renouncing familial ties to her has shattered that protection."

Harry raised an eyebrow at that. "No offence, Headmaster, but I doubt the protection was as amazing as you are making it out to be." Not least because Lily Potter was still alive and any protection based on her death was fundamentally flawed. "But this does mean something for me. Now I no longer need to return to Privet Drive, there's simply no reason for me to go there. Instead, I will leave immediately for the holidays, rather than wait a week, and I will book a room at the Leaky Cauldron for the last week until September first. As for mail, I'm going to set up a drop box at the Owl Office before I leave, I will read all of my mail when I get back."

"I'm sorry, Harry, but you are too important to risk just running free. As your Magical Guardian, I will exercise my authority to have you behind the most secure wards that I am capable of erecting. For now though, you will have to stay at the castle, and-" Harry raised a hand and cut Dumbledore off.

"You are not my Magical Guardian." Harry said. "You have no such authority over me."

Dumbledore blinked. "Harry, when you came to Hogwarts, I became your Magical Guardian. As the headmaster, I become the Magical Guardian of all of the muggle-borns and orphans." Harry shook his head. "Harry, you are my responsibility! Sirius Black can't be your guardian because he is in Azkaban, and your Godmother is in the permanent ward at Saint Mungo's."

"Professor, you are not my Magical Guardian. I know you are not, because I know who my guardian is, and you are the wrong gender for one." Harry said. "Good day, Headmaster, I will see you at the feast and then I will probably see you on September first at the welcoming feast."

Harry walked out of the door, leaving a flabbergasted Dumbledore behind him. The headmaster looked at Fawkes and stroked his beard as he started to mutter to himself. "Who could be his Magical Guardian? Just who is it?"

xxxxx

"Hey, Harry." Beth said, when she, Septima, Harry, and the familiars were having their last group lunch of the academic year. "There's been some odd rumours going around about you over the last couple days. You know, if you three want somewhere to crash, you're welcome to stop by my place. I inherited a fairly big house, and it's a bit boring just having me around all the time. Septima's often there too, but that's usually it."

Harry shook his head, a smile on his face. "Nah, it's alright. I'm actually quite glad that I'm not going back to my aunt's place. I only intended to stay there a week anyway. No, me, Isis, Loki and Reinforce are going to be doing a bit of travelling. We'll be back about a week before September first, so we might come visit you if you want us to."

"Fine by me." Beth said, a frown creasing her brow. "Just as long as you know that option's open to you."

"I feel the same." Septima added. "If you ever need a hand with anything, let us know. Anyway, that aside, who is this Reinforce person you mentioned? I don't think I've heard you say that name before."

Harry pulled out his Tome of Shadows. "She's the one that made me this, and is also the provider of pretty much all of the interesting arrays and formulae that you've been drooling over for the past few months." He said.

"Oh, now I _must_ meet her. Someone that... interesting isn't a person I want to pass by. If and when you do come and visit, be sure to bring her along with you, okay?" Septima asked, a hungry and rather scary gleam in her eyes.

Loki chuckled. "Reinforce is also the other person that Isis keeps mentioning when she is suggesting threesomes with Harry." The raven familiar was forced to duck as Harry threw a curse at him. That wasn't an issue for long though, as Isis engulfed Harry in a hug, trapping his wand arm between her breasts as she started whispering things in Harry's ear.

Due to the redness of his face, and the way he started shaking, they could all guess what sort of things Isis was whispering in Harry's ear. Loki, Beth, and Septima all fell about laughing at the 'poor' boy. The professors also wondered, not for the first time, what the hell happened to the 'purity' and 'innocence' of unicorns.

xxxxx

After the feast that night, during which Ravenclaw won the house cup by quite a wide margin, everyone packed up and got ready to go the next morning. Harry assisted in the tracking down of Trevor the toad, helped search the Ravenclaw common room for chess pieces, said goodbye to the teachers he was on good terms with, and bid a fond farewell to the castle itself.

Harry looked down at the little note he'd been given, stating that he was not to do magic outside of school because he was under-age, but he ignored it. One thing that Loki had discovered, with all of his listening charms and everything, was that the trace didn't work that way. They could detect where magic was cast and who was in the general area at the time, but they cannot tell who actually cast the spell. Because Harry was going to be off planet for the summer, there was no way they were going to be able to keep track of him.

The train ride back was fairly friendly. The only people who didn't really get along well with Harry were Draco Malfoy and his two lumps of muscle. Actually, get a lump of muscle by itself, and it's not so bad, but Malfoy was the driving force behind the aggression with them two.

When they were almost at King's Cross, Harry, Isis and Loki managed to get themselves sequestered in an otherwise empty compartment. Harry had his luggage with him, and he had his familiars with their belongings too. He looked at them, smiled, and said. "First stop, Diagon Alley. Dimensional Transfer!"

* * *

Look for the sequel: Reinforced Chamber


End file.
